ExInvader Eke
by EchidnaHazard
Summary: An Ex-Invader with memory losses is sent to Earth to aid Zim...what happens when she remembers how it was she was damaged?
1. Default Chapter

Eke glanced up as the control alarm blared like a screaming banshee in her head. The implant told her it was time to get up, and more importantly, it was time to face another hellish day.  
  
She sat up in her containment tank, turning to her left. The small Irken observed the SIR unit sitting, slumped, in the corner.  
  
"Roc." She prodded with her voice, "It's morning."  
  
Green eyes flared to life alertly and the robot stood, unsteady on its legs. Wiring showed through its head and back, and panels were affixed everywhere, signs of cheap repair. But the little robot was as loyal a friend as one could be found.  
  
"My master. It is seven twenty Ante Meridiem, west planetside." He reported, crisp, "You have fifteen minutes to prepare yourself, then you must enter your Spittle Pod to board the Tallest control vessel and operate switchboard seven eighteen CDJRESF."  
  
"I know...most of that." she admitted softly, "Some of it escaped me during the night."  
  
Roc nodded, his robotic form somehow displaying concern, "Your memory losses. Improvement?"  
  
"No. Not marked improvement, at any rate. My name is Eke. I'm seven-no, eighteen years old. Visual and audio communications-expert." She rattled off, "I didn't remember where I work."  
  
"You have a message from the Irken Pak Development Center." Roc said, his eyes fading a little, "Another rejection notice."  
  
Her head tilted, "Again? That's the tenth time."  
  
"Eleventh." He corrected gently, "Now, prepare yourself or we will run late again."  
  
Eke moved from her position and got dressed correctly, an amazing feat for her. She brushed her teeth and straightened her antennae, glancing in the mirror as she did so. Pale green eyes gazed back, and mottled sickly green skin, even for the more unappetizing of her race, she was unattractive.  
  
Before, she'd had a mind to compensate...but that had changed. What was sad was that she didn't even know how it had changed. And every time she tried to remember, her damaged Pak would not let her. Most of her memories leaned towards the idea that something awful had happened, and the Pak was broken in some sort of accident. But it had been years, and nothing had been said about it. Her ten-her eleven requests for a Pak repair had been denied, over and over again.  
  
"I used to be an Invader." She whispered to her reflection, suddenly startled. That, she could remember.  
  
"Eke?" Came the gentle, prodding voice of Roc, "Do you need help?"  
  
"No, no, I'm fine." Eke stepped out of the little toiletry room, hurriedly, and he met her gaze with his flashing lenses, taking in her form.  
  
"You have nine minutes." He informed her not unkindly, and saluted.  
  
She paused for a moment, taking him in with her eyes. He had been a broken, discarded SIR unit, failed on an invasion from some planet or another, and she, as an enterprising Invader, had decided to adopt him instead of taking one of the newer models. She used to be a genius when it came to robotics. Now she barely remembered how to work a Spittle Pod, and a Smeet could do that. Anyone could.  
  
How the mighty have fallen...  
  
"Master. You have eight minutes." Prodded Roc.  
  
"Mm? Oh. Sorry." Eke moved over to the door, pausing to grab a necklace and slip it around her throat. Roc followed her out, hovering close by her right shoulder. She hopped into her Spittle Pod, gunning it, and Roc imitated her speed in a burst of colorful exhaust.  
  
She docked on The Massive two minutes later, exiting, locking it, and running up the stairs. Roc moved ahead, his advantage in the air speeding him up, and he reached the main door before she did, typing in the code just as she arrived.  
  
Breathlessly, she took her seat at the far left, eyeing the two main chairs. Red and Purple lounged there, both looking bored in a princely sort of way.  
  
Red turned to look at her as the door slid open, and his gaze fell upon Roc. His ruby eyes narrowed. He hated the little SIR with a type of personal loathing he reserved usually for Zim.  
  
"Sorry I'm late, my Almighty Tallest." Eke breathed, her soft little voice carrying surprisingly well in the closed room.  
  
"Perfectly alright." Red dismissed it.  
  
"Mm, but is it? That's the third time this month." Purple interjected. The two of them shared a little, private look for a moment.  
  
"Eke... what are you wearing?" Red inquired, his eagle eye spotting the chain around her neck.  
  
She started guiltily, then turned. "Please, my Tallest, it's only a ...a locket..."  
  
"We're paying this girl seven hundred monies every day to come in late wearing treasonous objects?" Purple wondered, his voice sharpening a little, "I'd have you thrown out of the airlock if I didn't think there was yet some hope for you."  
  
"Hope...?" She asked quietly. It came out a squeak.  
  
"My Tallest!" Roc growled, "Eke is Pak challenged. This is cruel and unfair."  
  
Red narrowed one eye, widening the other, and managed to look menacing and condescending all at once, an incredibly difficult feat. "What is cruel and unfair is denying another, more worthy Irken the job she seems to dislike."  
  
Purple rose from his chair, his hands behind him, and said, "Eke, we know about the unfortunate little accident you had, some years back... most of the people in your position would be demoted to Service Drones at once after that, but we also realize... how difficult it can be."  
  
"You do?" She asked softly. Roc tensed beside her, and the Tallest's Honor Guard did the same.  
  
"Which is why we're going to give you a different job. We have another Invader with...mmm... relatively similar problems like yours. He's trying to conquer a planet, without much success, and we decided--"  
  
"-Yes, we decided he would need some help. And you can go help him." Red finished, "You can even take that outdated SIR along if you want."  
  
Eke froze. A second chance to be an Invader? Alongside another, with problems like hers...?  
  
"I don't know what to say." she murmured for a second.  
  
"Say 'yes'." Advised Purple.  
  
Slowly, wordlessly, she nodded. Before she knew it she was being hustled from the room, her SIR alongside, and the door slid shut behind her.  
  
"What was that?" Roc demanded, a twinge of jealous anger in his voice, "Dumping us out?! Giving you a spotlight to share with someone else? That isn't done, it's just not done that way, Eke!"  
  
Eke frowned and glanced down at the paper Red had shoved at her. It had a large interplanetary map on it.  
  
"Eee-ahrth?" She asked aloud, "Mm... hey, it's near Mars!"  
  
Roc viewed the paper with a silent scowl, then he offered, "It'd take a week to get there in a Spittle Pod." He sounded slightly angry at the fact that Red had suggested his owner had mental disabilities that rendered her unable to do her job properly...even though it was true.  
  
Eke started down the hallway to her Pod, thinking very hard. Her Pak let out a weak stutter, trying anew to store her memories, and it failed again. 


	2. Ruined Recall

Eke sat back down on the edge of her containment pod. There was no need to go rushing off to Eee-ahrth immediately, after all, this Invader could handle it while she figured out a few key problems.  
  
"Roc. Query." She said, thoughtfully, "Why would the Tallest not have me demoted, like they said?"  
  
"Assumed hypothesis..." Roc played the query game patiently, "Pity."  
  
She paused, nodding, and then fingered the locket, still gazing at the map. "Eee-ahrth seems like a mostly Aquarius-like planet. I expect the inhabitants are sea creatures adapted to underwater life."  
  
"Research dictates nothing is known on this planet." Roc advised, "Therefore, you shouldn't go making assumptions."  
  
"I'm trying to think of how the Invader's having trouble with this." she retorted quietly, "Invaders are blessed with their position because they excel. Because they are tall. Not because they have disabilities."  
  
This gave even Roc a beat or two to think up a reply, and he couldn't. "Well. We'll know when we see him, yes?" He asked uneasily, "And his SIR."  
  
"Yes." she agreed. The locket clicked open, shut, open, and shut as she played with it. It caught his attention.  
  
"Why do you risk accusations by wearing that?" he questioned.  
  
"If I don't wear it, I'll forget where I put it." she said patiently, "So I always do, unless I'm resting, then it's by the bedside."  
  
"Why is it so important? It can't be sentimental." Because you can't remember enough to be nostalgic. He finished silently, not wanting to be cruel.  
  
Her eyes flashed with inner fire, her hand formed a fist around the necklace, protecting it. "It was a gift from...someone..."  
  
Roc twitched, unusual for a SIR, and said, "Who?"  
  
Eke stood, crossed over to her closet and drew out a small box. She opened it and drew out several letters written in scrawled Irken Casual.  
  
"Dearest Invader Eke." She read aloud, "I hope this letter reaches you well. I've been assigned to another interesting job, and I've sent you this little gift so you don't feel so lonely about waiting for me to return. As you know, I've got several planets under my belt now. Tallest Miyuki is bound to recognize my outstanding talent soon, after all, since I've conquered an entire galaxy by now, and my height is nothing to pass over. It's a backwater little place, the Milky Way or Starry Way, or some such thing, but still, quite a major accomplishment. Something to write home about. I love you. Please take care, and..." her voice trembled, "Remember me."  
  
Roc blinked. "You've never shown me those before."  
  
"There was never a need." She explained in that little quaver, "As I don't recall who he was. They're not dated, they're not signed. He could be anyone."  
  
"But this is before. When you were an Invader." Roc said, "Before the..." he trailed off, "Whatever it was. Whoever he is. He knew you before."  
  
She nodded, responded in a toneless voice, "And the locket is what he sent. So the locket is what I keep. Forever, because I can't recall him."  
  
The SIR looked doubtful. "You couldn't get these letters analyzed?"  
  
"There are hundreds of thousands of Irkens who write that way, probably." She snorted, "And there's no way any of them would come forward."  
  
Roc knew well what she meant. To love, especially to love someone above or below your station, was a crime indeed, and one discouraged. Only the more dimwitted, or secretive, of the Irkens got away with it. They were looked down upon as unusual by the others, and dangerous by everyone else. The Tallest had been silent on the matter, however.  
  
"He must have loved you. He took a great risk." Roc responded.  
  
"Yes." She murmured, taking the locket off and turning it over in her hands, "Initals are carved... R and E. I assume the E is my name."  
  
"No use dwelling on it." Roc muttered suddenly, "I need to refuel the Spittle Pod. Humph, a whole week in space. How irritating." He wandered off towards the doorway, and it slid shut with a hiss behind him.  
  
Eke looked at the door as though it held all the secrets of the world. All the secrets of her head, locked in a dark, misty veil in the depths of her Pak. She looked across the room to the mirror and suddenly did not recognize the girl gazing back. She bit back a scream of terror and frustration, one that could burst her lungs and rupture her throat until everything made sense to her again.  
  
"Remember me..." she whispered forlornly, "Please, someone, help me." Her hand tightened on the locket until the edge wore a deep groove into her palm, digging and biting with acute pain. Her emerald eyes shimmered with rage.  
  
Why? How was this fair, that she was hurt and handicapped with this, and the others took all they could get? Why was it fair that her, in a perfect society, a clone-born child, could ever have flaws...when the others were sickeningly perfect? All except this new Invader, this... Zim. And even then, his handicap was probably not as extreme as hers.  
  
The tears fell where they would, the scream stayed locked in her throat, suppressed and substituted for choking sobs.  
  
"I'm broken." She said aloud, in a wavering voice, her eyes straying down to the letter, "Who are you? Do you know that I'm broken like this...? Would you love me anyway...?"  
  
She sat silently for a few more minutes, crying the pain out, the agony slowly feeding on it, and her eyes darted back to the door. A minute later she exited the room, trusting her mind to take her to the pods. 


	3. The Dib Encounter

Spittle Pod number Seven-hundred and Ninety-eight roared out of the underbelly of a refueling ship, headed towards the almost unheard of corner of the universe, the star system where she could, perhaps, re-impress the Tallest.  
  
Roc was huddled next to her; his fuel stock couldn't afford to take him as far out as Earth was. The Pod weaved in and out of asteroids, and she placed it on autopilot, where it remained for a few days while she planned out strategies in her head.  
  
"So. This planet..."  
  
"Earth." Roc had figured out the correct pronunciation by piggybacking broadcasts until he found the word and how it was said. No small feat, indeed.  
  
"Yes, Earth. It's a Class Three: inhabited, one sun, one moon, one dominant species. Is that all we know about it?"  
  
"The two have been working on taking it down for months, much slower than an average Irken. They can usually accomplish the most rudimentary stages within two weeks." Roc added.  
  
"I'm sure he's doing his best." Eke said, tapping her Pak. It slid open and she replaced the map and data table into it.  
  
Roc nodded, though there was some hesitation. He seemed about to say something, then he decided not to. Without warning, there was a hissing scream that echoed over the intercom. Eke jolted upright, brushed the controls, and a voice came through, translated into Irken Common.  
  
"Irken scum! You are trespassing in Trill territory!" Screeched the voice, "Surrender or be destroyed!"  
  
Roc turned his head, jumped up and pressed his face to the glass. The Trill's ship was a small Fleeter version, not that much bigger than a Pod, and shaped like a raven with swept back wings. It was painted glossy silver.  
  
"Surrender? The might of the Irken Empire bows to no one!" Eke cried, with more bravery than she felt.  
  
"Then die!" Shrilled the Trill over the intercom. The Fleeter arced up and back, lasers flying from its turrets, and Eke barely had enough time to swerve out of the way.  
  
"Roc, take care of the ship." She said, forcing calm into her voice.  
  
"No!" Roc hissed, "You can't remember how to use your Pak jets, get realistic." His hand slammed down on the control button, and the windshield whooshed up. He darted out from under it, shutting it again, and turned his head to look at the offending Fleeter.  
  
"Not even your robot slaves can destroy the power of the Trill." Intoned the pilot of the Fleeter.  
  
Roc held out both hands, his green eyes flickering to red and back, and then to red again. He deployed a heat-seeking missile, darting back to remain away from the ship. The missile slammed into the cockpit of the Trill's Fleeter, and Roc heard the sound of cracking glass.  
  
The Trill fired on him, and he cut his boosters and reversed them so the lasers flashed by just above him, cutting it a hair's breadth of being shot.  
  
He knew what he had to do, and fired his thrusters once more. He sped towards the Fleeter, hands compressed to claw-like points, and then slammed them both into the weakened glass of the cockpit. It shattered, brittle beneath his hands, and he stared at the Trill pilot.  
  
Trills were a very unusual species. They had the ears of wolves, the blunted snouts of reptiles, and lank, glossy red feathers. They were also cyborg: this one had surrendered both arms, replaced with shiny metallic gadgets and weapons. It gasped for air, showing wicked snake fangs, and its eyes, small glittering stones, glassed over.  
  
Roc watched it happen, confident and relaxed, when he suddenly sensed something on his radar and turned. The Fleeter, still moving in the semi- infinite inertia of space, was going to ram directly into Eke's Pod. Roc darted inside it, gazed at the controls upside-down, and found that he could not alter the ship's course. The Trill had been connected with the ship-the two were one.  
  
He fired his thrusters again, shoving the ship nose-downward and steering it away from the waiting Pod, and using up the last of his fuel reserves.  
  
"Eke!" He called in a fading voice, "I'm done!"  
  
She steered the Pod around, took stock of the situation, and her eyes went wide. "Roc!"  
  
Before he could yell at her not to come out, she slid the glass back and jumped out, her Pak instantly forming a bubble around her head to help her breathe in the vacuum.  
  
She reached out for him, her eyes blazing. "Come on, Roc."  
  
"I'm out of fuel." He said in an emotionless voice, "Just go."  
  
"No way." She growled, shoving forward another couple of precious inches. Now only a foot remained between her and her loyal servant. A foot that, without gravity, might as well have been a mile.  
  
She steered herself, still trying to steady everything and recall her position to the Pod at the same time, and ingenuity struck.  
  
Mechanical spider legs shot out of the Pak with a noise like a switchblade opening, a 'snnickt' sound that was truly beautiful to her at that moment.  
  
Two of the claws grabbed onto the alloy of the Trill's ship, and the other two extended to Roc. After a small hesitation, he latched on to one of them. She bunched up the legs, still lucid for the moment, and turned her face back to the Pod, judging the distance. She shoved off, working against the zero gravity of space, flailing her arms and legs like a baby chicken realizing it can't fly and trying anyway.  
  
"C'mon, c'mon..." She grunted under her breath, the spider legs shifting around to get a grip on her Pod. One caught, then two, and the inertia threatened to rip her off and send her flying in the other direction. She held on grimly, her teeth grinding together, and brought them both to a jarring stop.  
  
She dumped Roc into the cockpit's seat, then scrambled in herself, taking a few liberal deep breaths after the Pod announced that it was breathable air.  
  
Roc sat silently, contemplating the futility of her actions; after all, he was only a robot, and easily replaced.  
  
He didn't get much time to think, only a few hours, until the ship touched down on top of Dib Membrane's house.  
  
Eke trotted out onto the roof and shielded her eyes against the blazing sun. She hopped down with her Pak's boosters for help, and Roc refueled himself from the Pod for a few minutes.  
  
The door opened. Eke spun around, alarmed, readying herself to face her first 'Earthen'. It was an extremely tall one, with pale skin hidden almost entirely by a white coat.  
  
"Hello, there." He said, in a jovial voice, "You must be a friend of Dib's?"  
  
Her eyes gazed coldly into his as she contemplated a response. Was Dib some sort of galactic overlord of these people, a benevolent one? He must be tall indeed to tower over this example of the species, and a merciful one, since she must be a friend of his.  
  
"Um. Yes, I am." She said hesitatingly, "He is...very good."  
  
There was a moment of silence. "Mm-hmm. Well, he's in his room right now, so you can come on upstairs." The Earthen's eyes turned to the roof. "Mmm. Mustn't forget to take down the Christmas decorations sometime this month." Then he trotted back inside.  
  
Roc leapt down beside her, frowning. "What was that?"  
  
She shook her head, "I think he was testing us." She said, bewildered, and moved inside. One of her hands stole to her pocket, where her compact Laser XY Nine-thousand waited, in case there was trouble, and headed up the stairs. On the way, she passed a sullen-looking Earthen working on some kind of machine, and guessed she was some kind of house-servant.  
  
Roc followed after her, and the two of them slowly reached the door in which the 'Dib' person was said to reside. The door creaked. A small Earthen turned to look at the door, and his eyes widened behind a pair of glasses that seemed too small for his face. "An alien!"  
  
Eke startled. This Earthen seemed more alert than the one downstairs. "Do not be alarmed, Dib." She said quickly, "I'm simply here for information."  
  
"Well...at least you didn't say you come in peace..." Contemplated Dib for a moment. Then he seemed to recover himself, "You're another of Zim's people, aren't you...you've got that same ugly skin color, and those same eyes."  
  
"You know of Zim!" She said triumphantly, "Good! Can you direct me to him?"  
  
Dib gazed blankly at her for a minute, then his gaze hardened, "Aid the enemy? Why? You're here to destroy mankind, and if I could only get someone to listen to me, I'd have him AND you locked away!"  
  
"Calm down, Earthen." She said, trying to take her own advice. This creature was very unfriendly.  
  
Roc stepped forward, his eyes pulsing red once more. "Tell us what we need to know, or you will be an ugly smear on this ugly wallpaper." He intoned.  
  
Dib stood. "So it's threats you want, huh?" He growled.  
  
Roc made no warning of what he was going to do before he did it. In this case, he arrowed up and grabbed Dib's shirtfront, jerking the other up to hover a few inches from the ground.  
  
"I can back these threats up, if you wish." Roc said, his voice the epitome of calm.  
  
The Earthen seemed alarmed by this, he reached out for the desk, and grabbed a piece of paper. "T-this is an area map. His house is marked in red."  
  
Roc snatched the paper. "Good Earthen. You've made a wise choice, and saved the rest of your clan from a torturous fate."  
  
Eke was handed the paper, and then ushered from the room by Roc, who seemed to have everything under control at this point. Together, they headed outside and up the road, Roc scrutinizing the map closely.  
  
"You didn't have to threaten him." Eke said softly.  
  
"No, but he was not being helpful." Roc retorted. His eyes were fixed firmly on the map. He occasionally made signals with his hands--turn left, turn right, straight on, but from that point said no more. 


	4. The Meeting

The streets passed in a blur, but Eke wasn't really paying all that much attention to them anyway. She'd grown used to never recognizing where she was, to taxing her mind to its utmost, trying to remember the simplest trivia: What's your favorite color? How do you turn off an Energy Cell Core? Who are the current Almighty Tallest? What is a nebula?  
  
Questions, questions. The first was either red or blue, she couldn't quite remember. The second she couldn't have recalled if her life depended on it. The third was Red, and someone else. Another color name. Lilac, or something... And she'd only just talked to them a week ago. The fourth, she had no idea.  
  
"Eke! Are you paying attention?" Roc snapped sharply. Eke looked up, biting her lip.  
  
"Sorry..." She whispered.  
  
"You just wait here, okay? And I'll go and get us some food. We're a little way away from the Invader's HQ, if this Earthen's map is right."  
  
"Right." She nodded, "I'll wait here. You'll get food."  
  
"Mm-hmm. Good girl. If you do have to leave, for any reason, be sure that you return to this spot ASAP. -The street is Leviathan." He stressed the last word.  
  
She nodded obediently. It was no use telling him she'd forget the information a minute or so after he was gone. He knew. He was just clinging onto that forlorn hope that if something was drummed into her head enough, it might stay.  
  
He took off, leaving her alone. She glanced up the street, seeing a few tall trees situated on neatly trimmed lawns. Every house seemed the same. Birds were chirping softly in the trees, and one of them, as black as the night sky, let out a screeching caw that sounded like a Trill's war-cry.  
  
Her eyes moved to the bright sky, lingered on the sun for a second, then quickly looked away. She was searching for something she could stare at, something she could latch onto until Roc was back. Without her aide she felt helpless. If someone came up and began asking questions--!  
  
Terror gripped her heart, and suddenly she had to get away. She had to. The thought of anyone quizzing her on subjects which she was profoundly ignorant of was too much to bear.  
  
The spider legs shot out of her Pak, called by need, and she glanced left and right before scuttling away at top speed. Roc was forgotten, Leviathan was forgotten, everything dumped into the black hole that used to be a memory bank, to rot away in disuse.  
  
Her legs clicked on the floor as she looked ahead, determined to get somewhere secluded, private, and most importantly, empty. She went on like this, frantic, for almost a minute before someone called out to her.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Her heart skipped a beat, she didn't dare to turn and look.  
  
"Hey! Zim!"  
  
This time she did turn, to behold a SIR unit, standing and looking at her the way someone might look at a squirrel they mistook for a lemming. Blank confusion.  
  
For a second she mistook HIM, for Roc, but then she saw his turquoise eyes, and the manner that he held himself was different. Then there was the half of a Pop-Tart clutched in one of his hands.  
  
"Oh. Sorry. Thought you were someone else." He explained, somewhat indifferently, cramming the pastry in his mouth. She gazed at him for a moment.  
  
"SIR. What is your designation number?" She questioned.  
  
"I'm Gir." He said, patiently, "I don't need no stinkin' number, see?"  
  
She gaped, more by his show of personality than the rude comment, and he seemed to take it as encouragement.  
  
"And I'll be leaving now." He swallowed the mashed up pastry, turning and giving her a half-salute. She frowned.  
  
"Wait! You're Zim's SIR, yes?" Her spider legs raced, kept up with him, and walked alongside.  
  
"Mm-hmm. But I'm Gir. Giiiir. Guh--"  
  
"Yes, Gir." She muttered, "Can you take me to Zim? I need to speak with him, it's urgent."  
  
"I sure can!" He exclaimed in a voice that was bordering on insane, "This way!" He grabbed onto one of her Pak's mechanical legs and fired his thrusters, and she had a half second to scream before he jetted off into the air.  
  
"Stop! Put me down!! Are you crazy?!" She screeched, flailing.  
  
He glanced back, considering something, then stopped in the air, keeping hold of her with apparent ease. "Gir." He said, with care, "Not Crazy." He smiled, stuck his tongue out at her, then turned back and resumed his flight. A few more heart-pounding seconds passed, during which Eke pictured the legs snapping off, 'Gir' breaking down, or them flying into the airspace of a resident spaceship. None of which happened, in fact, she found herself placed gently on the ground, and when she opened her eyes, saw Gir elsewhere. He had lost interest in her, it seemed, and was now examining a sparrow in a nearby tree.  
  
She stood up, the legs retracting back into her Pak, and frowned. The house in front of her was obviously an Irken dwelling, that much she could tell by the sentry-guard robots outside. Sloppy, if he realized it was so simple to figure out, but then, perhaps he really wasn't too good at Invading.  
  
She reached the door, then hesitantly knocked three times. There was silence. She raised her fist to knock again, but almost as soon as she did, the door creaked open slightly. A shadowy figure stood there.  
  
"Yes?" The voice was carefully controlled, fooling itself into sounding competent, and she saw through it in a moment, right before he gasped, startled.  
  
There was a series of sharp clicks, locks being turned, and the door was flung open all the way. She got her glimpse of the figure inside, and the frown deepened on her face.  
  
"You're an Irken." The Invader said, sounding accusing now, "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I'm Invader Eke." She said, matching the anger in his voice with her own cool tone, "I've been sent by the Tallest."  
  
He didn't say anything, but his eyes widened slightly. Gir squealed off in the distance, attacked by the sparrow, and for a few moments there was only the noise of battle behind them. Eke tuned it out, Zim seemed not to notice it at all. He was probably accustomed to it by now.  
  
He was incredibly short, but it was good to see a fellow Irken after a week in space. She analyzed him more closely, taking in his laid-back antennae, his gleaming ruby eyes, the small mouth that was twisted into an uneasy scowl, and his Pak.  
  
"Eke." He said, after a minute, as reluctant as a child being made to apologize, "Won't you come in?"  
  
She nodded, stepped inside, over the threshold, and he moved aside to make way for her. He gestured to the couch vaguely, and she could tell there was something more on his mind. She had the sneaking suspicion she knew what it was, too.  
  
When she had seated herself on the plush couch, he swallowed, seemed to mentally get his words in order, and spoke with some difficulty. "The Almighty Tallest sent you." He said, finally.  
  
She nodded, and answered his next question, confident she knew what it was already, "Because you're taking too long."  
  
"Taking too long!" He repeated incredulously, his eyes glowing with sudden fury. He bristled, "This isn't half as easy as I make it look! There are six billion monsters out there ready to destroy me if I so much as say one word wrong! It takes time, like all things good, it can't be rushed...like genius, and art, and the death bees."  
  
She paused, decidedly thrown off by his last words, but nodded again all the same. "I understand that you might be offended," she chose her next sentence carefully, "But I've been sent to help you."  
  
"Bah. I don't need help. It's hard, yes." He grimaced, lacing his fingers together under the gloves, "Yes, indeed... But I don't need another Invader here. I really don't. I'm doing fine."  
  
"Do you know how long you've been here?" She asked, still keeping her voice calm.  
  
He shrugged offhandedly, "Meh. A month? I lose track of time. The sun here is insane." His eyes darkened, as though there was some conspiracy, "Many things are insane. But I'm doing FINE, I tell you!"  
  
It took Eke another minute to collect herself enough to respond, and during that time he didn't blink, just stared at her.  
  
"Okay." She said, slowly, "You're doing fine."  
  
"Mm-hmm." He murmured assent, not shifting his pose a bit. His antennae flicked back lazily, but other than that, he might as well have been carved from stone.  
  
"But regardless, the Tallest did send me. So what am I supposed to do, since you have it all under control?" She asked. She decided to exercise patience.  
  
"Eke, did you say?" he asked abruptly. When she nodded, he continued, in a brisk tone, "Well, Eke. You need to go get your spaceship and return to the Irkens' Main Armada, because, obviously," his tone turned arrogant, "You have made some sort of mistake."  
  
This was what made her angry, she reflected later. Not the patronizing speech, not the way he said it, not even the slight narrowing of his eyes and the deadset line of his mouth that suggested no amount of arguing could cajole him. No. It was the "some sort of mistake" line that got her the most.  
  
All her life she had been making mistakes, ever since the event she couldn't remember that had changed her life. Whether it was forgetting birthdays, meetings, names, trivia, anything...She was always making mistakes.  
  
She stood up, quite calmly. "Yes." She said, "There has been a mistake."  
  
"I thought as much..." he began, in the same voice.  
  
She balled her hand into a fist, took a step forward, and slammed it into the side of his face. He reeled, caught completely off guard, and slammed Pak-first into the wall, slumping over onto the floor.  
  
"That was for being an insufferable pig!" She hissed, her green eyes flashing, "Now get up and we'll settle the part where you said I made the mistake! You're the one who made the mistake, you horrible, ugly, fat- headed..." She thought hard, trying to remember the worst word she'd ever heard used, "PIPSQUEAK!"  
  
There was a shocked silence as he gazed up at her. "P-pip...?" He asked dazedly, trying to stand up again.  
  
"My master! Do you need assistance?" Gir's voice had completely changed, from squeals and giggles to efficient and crisp. He still bore the battle scars against the sparrow, standing in the open doorway.  
  
"Gir, that won't be ne..." Zim tried again to collect himself, still stunned by the punch and the name.  
  
There was a high whine of equipment on overdrive, and a familiar voice. "Leave her alone, you scum!"  
  
Roc shot into the room via the open door, slamming headfirst into Gir, and the two of them landed in a heap against the far wall, Roc shoving the other off of him almost as soon as they landed.  
  
Eke was still standing next to the couch, her eyes filling up with tears, and without warning, she collapsed against it, sobbing. Zim shared a bewildered look with Gir before the extremely angry Roc strode up to him, both hands deadly needle-claws.  
  
"What did you do to her?!" He bellowed furiously. Zim did stand up, leaning against the wall quickly, and shook his head.  
  
"I didn't do anything." He protested, "I really didn't. Did I, Gir?"  
  
Gir was lying upside down against the wall, and gazed at him playfully. "I just got here."  
  
The SIR unit disregarded both their commentary, approaching Eke instead, and patted her on the head, unsure. "Eke?"  
  
She looked up, sniffling still, and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Roc turned to look at Zim, and for a moment the Invader could only stare back. Then, reading the danger in the robot's eyes, he grinned. It looked a bit forced, but he managed it.  
  
"As...as I was saying." He recovered at last, "I'd be grateful for the help, Invader Eke."  
  
Eke blinked. "You would??" She asked incredulously.  
  
"Of course I would. We would. Wouldn't we, Gir?"  
  
"I dunno. Yeah, why not?" Gir grinned, and his, though crazy, wasn't forced at all. 


	5. Scampi Attacks

Eke gazed with quiet wonder, her eyes darting around and taking in everything at once. There were containment units along either side, and numerous computer monitors that filled the laboratory.  
  
It was modest, especially for an Irken control base, but for Eke and Roc, it was quite impressive indeed. The old SIR trotted along beside her, watchfully. In front of them, Zim, almost completely absorbed, was trying to hail the Tallest from the main computer. He had brought them down to show them the lab, with the air of a child showing off his shiny new bike to the neighborhood kids. He was obviously eager to demonstrate how much he was in control of the situation, and thus, was trying his hardest not to make any mistakes. A few seconds passed, and Gir called down that he'd broken something or another.  
  
"That's nice, Gir." Zim called back, nervously. He slammed a fist onto the control panel, then looked back at Eke apologetically, "Heh, heh. Piece of junk."  
  
She frowned. His voice when he said that...it sounded unusual, somehow, in a way she couldn't place.  
  
Roc reached out to touch one of the tubes, this one an inky black, and Zim added sharply, "I wouldn't!"  
  
"Why not?" Roc asked, coolly. He'd taken an instant dislike to Zim, as he did to many people who made Eke cry. His hand made contact with the tube, and a few bubbles rose from inside it. He tapped it, hard.  
  
"Don't!" Zim's repeated warning came too late. The tube shattered under the pressure as if something from within had been pushing as hard as it could to break free, and the fluid inside burst from it, drenching Roc and Eke. A dull roar echoed, and Roc looked up, and up, and up. Towering above him, seemingly bigger than the container that had held it, was a dripping, yellow, muscled lizard creature. Its eyes, burning red like the fires of hell, flared once, and its tail whipped back, smashing a table into two.  
  
"What is that?!" Eke stumbled back, feeling appropriately helpless. Roc followed her as the beast roared again, its head tracking their movements.  
  
Zim leapt from the chair as the hailing frequency opened, taking a compact laser gun from his Pak and aiming at the creature. "I'm not exactly sure what he is," He explained, keeping his voice quiet as the gun powered up, "But we found him at one of the humans' military-bases, and Gir thought he was cute, so we decided to keep him. Gir calls him Scampi."  
  
The beast roared a final time, its tail, nearly twice as long as it was, swinging around like lightning to slam into Zim. It was likely that Scampi didn't find Zim a threat, and simply was looking for a target.  
  
The gun went skittering across the floor, and Zim was knocked back against the control panel. The Tallest were clamoring on the screen.  
  
"Zim! What is it? Are you being killed?" Red's hopeful voice came through clearly.  
  
"Never fear, my Tallest, I have everything under control!" Zim cried valiantly, one hand holding his head, the other on the floor to steady himself. As soon as I stop seeing three of him, he vowed in his mind, I'll get up and subdue him. Yes, that sounds like a plan.  
  
His gaze wavered for a second as Scampi swam back into focus, but the gigantic reptile had already turned its attention away from the immobile Irken and was attacking Roc. The SIR unit flipped backwards onto its hands, infinitely more agile than any normal creature had a right to be, dodging the dinosaur-like animal's tail assaults and hoping to keep it busy until Eke or Zim could get it together enough to finish it. He flipped over it again and again, seemingly knowing where it was going to swing before it did, and balanced on one hand precariously, moving away and always staying a tantalizing target. Close, but never completely within reach.  
  
Eke glanced back, into the shadows where the gun had been flung, and darted off to get it. A minute passed as she frantically searched, the enraged roars of the monster becoming louder and more annoyed, if it was possible, and she began to wonder if she'd even been close in her recall of the gun being thrown here and not somewhere else in the lab.  
  
"What is that THING?" Purple asked in horrified fascination, with the tone of a child wondering about the type of bug that had just eaten an annoying friend's finger, "Zim?"  
  
"It's Scampi." Zim responded, still a little woozy. He got up anyway, "He's a little angry right now."  
  
There was a sound like aluminum being crushed as Scampi's tail made fast friends with Roc's chest. The SIR hit the floor, actually bounced, and came to a stop a little way away, making a few feeble attempts to rise once more. He had a lot of heart, but it was plain that he was finished, in this fight, at least. He slumped, his eyes dimming, and as soon as he stopped moving, Scampi lost all interest.  
  
"Roc!" Eke yelled, forgetting her quest for the weapon in her sudden worry. She darted back out of the shadows, "Roc, are you okay?!"  
  
Scampi turned his blood-red gaze on her, sensing motion, and lunged. Eke saw him coming, gasped, and increased her speed. The lizard, at least seven times taller and about sixteen times heavier, not to mention a good deal faster, also had the advantage of his tail, which seemed to be his favorite weapon. He brought it forward, bounding closer.  
  
Zim moved, finally getting it back together enough to concentrate, and he leapt for Eke with both hands outstretched.  
  
Time seemed to slow down for a second or two, as Zim shoved Eke, then held his ground against the behemoth. She tumbled to the ground, and his feet set against the floor, fighting to suddenly come to a complete stop. He stood stock still, not even his antennae moving in the sudden silence, fists clenched, his chest not rising or falling with the motion of breathing. Scampi paused, confused by the sudden lack of motion, and shoved his nose forward at Zim, inquisitively. The big snout rubbed against Zim's face, but the Irken remained totally motionless.  
  
"Eke." He hissed out of the side of his mouth, barely making any noise, "Don't move."  
  
The female Invader was sprawled on the floor, staring in shock at the scene, but something deeper prodded her to disobey: Roc. She rolled over slightly, onto her hands and knees, and began to slowly make her way to the SIR's still form.  
  
"Eke!" Zim raised his voice slightly, still trying to appear inanimate. His fists were now trembling, "Eke, stop..."  
  
Scampi caught the motion out of the side of his eye, turned again, and advanced on her. Zim, caught in a fit of sudden desperation, reached out for the long tail and grabbed onto it. That caught Scampi's attention anew, and the reptile reared, waving its tail and growling low in its throat. Zim refused to be dislodged, his fingers squeezing persistently into the leather flesh of the much larger enemy.  
  
Scampi whipped his tail harder, bringing it against the wall a few times, but Zim just clenched tighter, his Pak forming a weak blue glow around him to shield him from the majority of the impact.  
  
"That's got to hurt!" Red exclaimed joyfully, "What did he say its name was again; Scampi?"  
  
"Go, Scampi!" Purple chimed in.  
  
Eke reached Roc after a few more moments, Zim's periodical grunting in the background warning her that she was moving on borrowed time. She rolled the robot over, gazing down at him. His chest area had a significant dent in it, but other than that, he appeared fine.  
  
A power short, then, that was all. Probably something pinched or constricted inside his mechanism, like a gear, that needed to move. She pried the chest panel open with her hands, working as fast as she could, and looked at the mass of wires and other things inside.  
  
Zim screamed in earnest behind her and she turned her head to look. What she saw temporarily stopped her mind from working clearly. The dinosaur thing had a foot on Zim's body, and was slowly working him off his tail, jaws gleaming as they tugged at the persistent little alien.  
  
"Hey!! Stop!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, standing from Roc's side. His problem wasn't serious, and it could wait. But Zim needed help, as soon as she could give it.  
  
"You big scaly bully! Get off him!" Eke darted up to the monster, jumping up and down, trying to present as much motion as she could. It worked, for the moment, as he fixed his attention on her instead of the Irken beneath him. She took a half step back, and then he bounded forward, claws rasping on the floor. He released his hold on Zim, snapping his tail back so fast he actually flung the Irken away. She broke and ran, a scream trapped in her throat, headed back into the slight shadowy depths of the lab, looking for cover.  
  
"Computer!" Zim's hoarse voice broke out, "Lights...off!"  
  
The lights went off, and Eke was plunged into darkness. She stood stock still, bringing to her mind the image of the lab as she remembered it. Of course, Zim was trying to help her escape; he didn't know that she was searching for the gun, and he certainly hadn't been told yet that she had a broken Pak.  
  
She could hear Scampi breathing heavily behind her, and tried again to remember what the lab looked like. She stumbled over a wire or two on the floor, and then began to fumble blindly, panicked beyond rational thought. The computer screen still glowed dimly, giving a small fraction of light, and the Tallest watched with interest.  
  
Dumb luck stepped in and offered a hand, as she tripped over more of the wires, and her hand came down on something cold and hard: the gun. She clasped her fingers around it tightly, relief washing over her like a wave, and then turned to face the large, dark space. Scampi was looking for her, she could tell where he was by the glowing tint of his eyes, and carefully, with one hand outstretched to feel for obstacles, she began to line herself up for a clean shot.  
  
She heard the clicking of a Pak's legs, and realized that Zim was using the darkness and his own intimate knowledge of the laboratory to his advantage. A second later, a small light leapt up, a greenish glimmer that was just enough to light up a tiny area. The ruby eyes of the dinosaur turned there faster than flames spread on oil, and the monster headed for Zim. The green light darted away, teasing the monster, hovering at about the same height as an Irken on mechanical legs. That settled it, then, Zim was trying to lure it away from her, but the two Invaders were hardly working as a team.  
  
"Zim, turn the lights on. Trust me." She spoke, with a quaver in her voice.  
  
There was a confused pause, in which the green pocket-light stayed in the same place a split second too long, and Scampi pounced, pinning the light to the floor.  
  
"Computer, lights on!" Zim screamed, and the lights flicked on once more, flooding the area with a bright, fluorescent flash. It dazed Scampi, but he didn't remove himself from his prey, bending his head to take a bite out of the morsel below him. The Tallest leaned forward in their chairs with anticipation, awaiting the final move, and Eke raised the blaster and took aim.  
  
Her first finger squeezed the trigger, sending a blinding pulse of plasma- energy arcing towards its target. She watched numbly as the shot sailed over Scampi and went wild. It hit the reflective wall of the lab and shot back at her. Her Pak's shield leapt up before the energy hit into it, effectively saving her from a gruesome death. She thought inanely that she needed to get weapons' lessons before she fought any more hulking monsters named after seafood.  
  
The shot had momentarily distracted Scampi, and he turned his head to look at her. She glared, raising the weapon again, and fired. This time the shot hit home, sending Scampi to the floor. He thumped against the tiles, out cold, and Zim stood up again, making a show of walking steadily across the floor.  
  
"As you can see, my Tallest. All under control." He said triumphantly, brushing himself off and approaching the monitor.  
  
"Mm-hmm." Red and Purple said at the same time. They both sounded disappointed. "Why do you keep carnivorous lizard-men in those tanks? They're supposed to be storing food supplies." Red addressed that question first.  
  
Zim said, "We...that is to say, Gir and I... decided he was not regularly encountered fauna on this planet, and so...decided to keep him downstairs."  
  
"Well, he nearly killed you." Purple added. He sounded as though his hopes had been dashed, but Zim seemed not to notice, as he had not noticed the Tallest cheering the monster on.  
  
"Ah, it seemed that way." Zim said, gallantly, "But in reality, I was holding back, to show you all the awesome inventive prowess of my mind!"  
  
"Uh-huh." Purple didn't sound all that convinced, "Tell us why you hailed us, will you?"  
  
"Just to say that Invader Eke has arrived safely, and even though I don't really need her help, I'm going to keep her here anyway, just in case. Thank you, my Tallest. Invader Zim, signing off!"  
  
The screen flicked to black, and Eke, breathing hard, simply stared at him.  
  
"You don't need my help? 'Just in case'?" She asked, incredulously, "You were almost beaten to death by that thing, Zim!"  
  
"Oh," He replied, sudden danger in his voice, "I wonder why. Because a certain someone couldn't stay still, perhaps?!"  
  
She glared. "Roc is my best friend. If he was hurt..."  
  
"He's a SIR. SIRs can be rebuilt and replaced." Zim said matter-of-factly, "And as it was, I handled myself quite well. I was ready to kill poor Scampi before you knocked him out."  
  
She was completely dumbstruck anew by his arrogance. "Zim." She said, her voice becoming wrathful, "Why don't you just admit that that thing nearly slaughtered us both, huh? And that it was luck, and pure good fortune alone that saved us."  
  
"I was waiting for you to get out of the way," he said, with a mirror of her angry tone, "So I could take it out without having to worry about it falling on you. And if your rivet-ridden robot friend hadn't touched the glass in the first place, we wouldn't be having this argument! Neh!"  
  
At the final, exasperated syllable, he turned away, moving over to the computer and beginning to type silently.  
  
"Zim-" She started.  
  
"Shut up." He cut her off swiftly.  
  
"Zim--!" She tried again.  
  
"Shut. Up. Or I will kick you outside on the street and the first acid filled, filthy human-worm will cut you open on a table of some sort...like that Dib is always going on about." Zim hissed, keeping his eyes on the computer.  
  
"I'll go." She said, softly.  
  
He didn't respond, typing still, the clacking of the keys filling the sudden silence. He kept it up for a few moments, then spoke. "Fine. Go! Leave. I never wanted you here anyway. Fool."  
  
There was no response. He frowned, then turned. The room was empty. Eke had left with Roc in tow. "Ehh..." Zim made an annoyed noise in the back of his throat. With any luck, she'd go get her spaceship and leave the planet.  
  
So why was it that he was feeling somewhat regretful of her going? Why did he suddenly have the urge to jump up, run to the inside of the house and beg her forgiveness? ...She was in the wrong, anyway. A newborn Smeet could tell that much.  
  
He moved back to the keyboard, resuming where he left off and feeling strangely guilty. 


	6. The Park

Eke walked down the sidewalk, grimly, gazing at the green grass and blue sky as they passed, and feeling vengeful. She wanted this nightmare to be over, but she knew she couldn't disobey a direct order of the Tallest.  
  
"He sees me as a rival, I think." She said to Roc, clasped in her arms. He didn't respond, off-line, as he was, but she went on, "Even though I'm not. Even though I don't want to be."  
  
She turned a corner, hardly paying attention to where she was going, and stepped into the road, crossing it without even looking. She continued down the sidewalk, puzzling things out to herself. The encounter with the monster had faded to the back of her mind once more, but she could remember a few dim things about it. She knew, for instance, that it was her who had finished off the beast when it was about to kill Zim. And there was no way she could have left poor Roc lying there until she knew he would be okay. So that made her justified, even if she put Zim in danger.  
  
The little Irken trotted inside a chain-link fenced off area, glancing around at all the unusual machines and things. She approached a tall construct with two chains hanging down, both connected to a piece of rubber. She thought she vaguely recognized how it was used, and thus, sat on it for a moment. When it didn't eject her right away, she relaxed, gazing at the wood-chips beneath the seat. There was a deep groove there, worn by many feet, it seemed. The sky was darkening, and Eke supposed it was beginning the night period.  
  
Eke turned her gaze down to Roc, taking a few tools from her Pak and using them to fiddle with the wires. This was something she had done so repeatedly, like breathing and blinking, that she hadn't forgotten how to do it. Roc was, after all, prone to putting himself in danger to save his master, and he needed to be repaired often.  
  
A cold wind began to blow, and she estimated it was a few hours before she was finished, after which darkness plunged the area into black. The temperature severely dropped, and she found herself shivering, her body adjusting poorly to the thermal difference. Roc was rebooting, and she cuddled him close as she swung back and forth on the rubber seat, trying to fight off the cold by hunching her shoulders and gritting her teeth.  
  
"All systems are functional, master." Roc's contented hum came clearly, "Are you well?"  
  
"Yes. I...Zim and I defeated the lizard thing." Eke said sadly, pushing back on the seat. To her surprise, when she let go, the seat began to swing back and forth, and the motion was oddly pleasing.  
  
"Our current location is several blocks away from the Invader's HQ." Roc was still in his stiff robot mode, and not his fuming, normal self. He wouldn't be for a few more minutes, until his programming was satisfied that all was well.  
  
"He told me to go. So I went." She said, more bitterly than she had intended, "He doesn't like me, and I don't think you like him, so this was doomed from the start. I...I'll just go home and become a Service Drone or something."  
  
Roc let out an alarmed beep. "You cannot! They teeter on the edge of poverty, Eke! You don't know what you're saying."  
  
"I don't know what to do." She put one arm around her little robot, swinging back and forth some more, "I'm cold, and...I feel like I'm a pain to him."  
  
"His personal feelings don't matter." Roc growled stubbornly, pulling free. He hopped down and walked over to a wooden table construction and sat down on it, gazing at her.  
  
"Think about it!" She pleaded, "I have. Someone you admire and look up to asks you to lift a mountain. So what do you do? You try and try, and break your back trying. And while you're straining yourself, and feeling helpless and miserable and an absolute failure, that someone who you trusted, who you were killing yourself to impress, sends someone else to help. That's a kick in the face, that you aren't good enough alone. So who do you resent, naturally? The person they sent, since your devotion to them can't let you hate them."  
  
"It's not your fault." Roc processed all of that with apparent ease, accepting the analogy, "It really isn't!"  
  
"I know that. But it's not his fault, either. He's subconsciously transferring anger at the Tallest to me." Eke kicked against the ground, swinging harder, "And I should know all about the way the Pak works. Mine is broken."  
  
Roc was silent for a long time, and the wind picked up. "So. He allowed his resentment to kick you out of his house, and leave you stranded on an alien world with nowhere to go."  
  
"I left." She said, softly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I left." She repeated, in a blank monotone, "He told me to shut up or he'd kick me out, so I left."  
  
"Eke! What am I going to do with you?" Roc asked, exasperated.  
  
She shrugged. "Kill me? I don't care anymore."  
  
The way she admitted it was so calm that for a moment he didn't even noticed the words. He reprocessed, then said meekly, "You don't mean that. I know you don't."  
  
"Why not?!" She suddenly spat, harshly, "I'll just break myself lifting this mountain alongside someone who doesn't want me to help!"  
  
"Do it." Roc said, "Break your back. Just don't ever give up. It's better to crawl back than to run away, okay? Running away is never okay, and THAT talk is exactly what you're trying to convince yourself with. You tell yourself that you're not strong enough to lift the mountain, so you look for escape!"  
  
The Invader stared him down, her green eyes boring into his, and neither spoke. Then, "And you propose?"  
  
Roc turned his gaze away, sullen, and fixed his eyes on a point in the distance. "Just don't cheat yourself by giving it up. You never give up, that's one of those things I like about you. You keep throwing yourself against the walls until you break them down, you keep facing the Goliaths until you've killed them all. You keep lifting mountains, and I'll be damned if you don't succeed in toppling this one, too."  
  
"What walls? What Goliaths? What mountains? Let's get realistic-" Eke started, but Roc cut her off with more swift ruthlessness than Zim had.  
  
"The walls are parts of your Pak-block. The Goliaths are people who try to bring you down because of your handicap. The mountains are towering problems you face every single day of your life. What, you think I don't notice that each day for you is a bunch of small struggles? You only know the most rudimentary of things, and those only because of much repeated action. You never quit, though. Even with those letters, and that locket." He pointed to it, "You wore it and risked teasing, and being fired, and everything. You never quit! And every time I saw you take on a new challenge, I wondered if that was the one to bring you down."  
  
She couldn't speak, just looked at him, shocked mute.  
  
"But it never was. Then I began to wonder if there WAS something that could break you, if such a thing even existed. After a time I thought maybe there wasn't. After about the seventh year you'd been living with this disability, I was sure of three things. I knew yours was a head held too high to be bowed. Yours was a back too strong to be broken. And yours was a mind...too precious...to be locked down in... the darkness there..." His voice was slowing down, the emotion, unchecked, poured from him in a torrent.  
  
She began, "You think I can beat this."  
  
"No. I know that isn't realistic." Roc shook his head, "You can never beat it, because every morning it comes back, over and over. But I think--no, I know--that every night you go to bed and it slinks off, and it's the loser and you're the winner. It's stubborn, it might even fight you until your very last breath, but every time you fight, it backs down. Defeated. That's the highest wall, the meanest Goliath... that's the mountain. I don't think you can lift it, but you can withstand being broken."  
  
"What if it's already broken me?!" She asked loudly, trembling from more than the cold.  
  
"You can't be, unless you stop, unless you bow your head, unless you throw in the towel! You can't lose unless you let it win!" Roc matched her voice in volume and emotion, standing up on the table, "You gave me a new life from what was dust, rebuilt my shell, and in return I thought I could help you get through this... I won't let you give up."  
  
"It isn't your choice." Eke stood from the seat, her eyes flashing defiance, "I'm going to get into that spaceship and return to the Irken Armada and become a Service Drone. I'm going to live in poverty all my life and hunger for everything I could never have. And all because of ...this...!"  
  
To Roc's horror, Eke reached back and forcibly ripped the Pak from her. It tore with a weak, stuttering noise, already weakened from disrepair and general disuse.  
  
"Eke!! You'll die!" Roc cried, jumping down from the table, "Please...don't..."  
  
She threw it down, "I let it win." She said, weakly, her intelligence and life force already beginning to seep away, "I let it win. No...more...mountain."  
  
Her eyes dimmed to black and she fell backwards into the grass. Roc gazed, stunned, then turned and boosted off, consulting his inner map and trying not to panic. He burst inside Zim's house only minutes later. Zim was sitting on the couch next to Gir, and as Roc entered, he flicked his eyes to the door, but remained sitting.  
  
"SIR unit. What are you doing?" Zim asked coolly.  
  
"I need your help, now!! Eke is...she tore... oh..." Roc found it incredibly hard to get his point across, "The Pak, she tore off her Pak!"  
  
"She'll die." Gir said simply, "Silly girl." He took a swig of his soda.  
  
Zim frowned. "When?"  
  
"A minute ago! What are you waiting for, a hand-lettered invitation?! Hurry up!!" Roc clenched his fists, "Come on!!"  
  
"She's not my problem anymore." Zim said, calmly, "And if she wants to do that, then-"  
  
"You selfish idiot!" Roc said, malice suddenly in his voice, "They'll discover her body and analyze it! Solid, concrete alien proof, indisputable! How soon until they notice the similarities between her and you? How soon until it's you who's captured?"  
  
This gave Zim room to pause. When he could find no flaw in the logic, he stood anxiously, "Lead me to her. Now!" 


	7. Capture!

Eke returned to consciousness slowly, a bitter taste in her throat. For a moment she didn't know where she was, and panic gripped her heart. It only increased as she scrutinized the room. Blank white walls, shadowy corners, and in one wall, a small door with a barred window.  
  
"Prison?" She asked aloud, her voice small and frightened. She wanted Roc nearby. She had no desire to die, despite her bold words and hasty action. Eke stood from the small cot in the corner and approached the door, gazing up at the window. "Hello? I-Is anyone out there?"  
  
There was stony silence.  
  
"Have I done...something wrong? Something to offend you?" She called, raising her voice a little. Still no reply.  
  
"Please... I'm scared." Eke whispered, leaning against the door. Her eyes dimmed, and she suddenly scrabbled around for her Pak, searching for her own laser. In the excitement of the battle with Scampi, she'd forgotten she even brought hers along.  
  
Her fingers found nothing. They came up empty...her Pak was still gone. She had ten minutes, possibly a lot less, before she died a horrible death. She could keel over in two seconds, for all she knew.  
  
"Oh, no." She uttered suddenly, a much worse thought gripping her. If these people who had captured her were humans... and if they did anything to show her off to the entire race... Zim could be in danger!  
  
As unfriendly as he had been to her, she understood the way he acted. Nobody wanted her around, she'd grown used to that, and he shouldn't be any different. If his cover was blown because of her, she'd never forgive herself.  
  
"Spit. There has to be something I can do to get out of here and get my Pak." She said, angrily, "I'm not just going to sit and die, even if--"  
  
She squeaked as the door began to open from behind her, and scuttled away from it, bracing herself to fight.  
  
The muzzle of an automatic met her startled eyes, and she recognized the ancient weapon from one or two half-forgotten history lessons. Though it was primitive and normally laughable, against an unarmed Irken, it could do a lot of damage. Behind the weapon was a tall human shadow. She squinted, trying to see his face, but the light from behind him was dazzling, and she could only make out his silhouette-and that of his gun.  
  
"Come on out here." The man's voice was husky and deep. Eke swallowed timidly, then began to trot forward. She noticed that the person took a step back into the hallway when she started out, and thought in wonder that he, the bigger of the two, packing a weapon, was afraid of her. Little stunted Eke; object of fear?  
  
"I really didn't do anything." She said softly, but he didn't seem to listen to her. She moved out into the brightly lit hallway, and he motioned for her to go down the left corridor. She did so, moving with a docile, deceiving step. Let him think she was being cooperative. All the worse for him when she made her move, she thought.  
  
He kept up the pace behind her, the gun trained on her head at all times, and she could feel herself sweating, nervous.  
  
Alright, Eke. You got yourself into this, she thought, now it's up to you to get out. For Roc, if nobody else. What would he do if he saw you being disemboweled on TV?  
  
Despite herself, she could feel a burning in her eyes, and she knew she was about to cry. She supposed this was adequate punishment, after all. She was just getting in everyone's way.  
  
But Zim! Her mind raged, don't blow Zim's cover, you worthless little Ex- Invader! For him, you have to avoid anyone knowing who and what you are!  
  
She silently told the voice to be quiet, after all; it wasn't helping too much. That was the voice of violence, the angry, sulky little one that came out every now and again to tell her what a blight she was on life in general. She tended to ignore it, but this time it was right.  
  
Tensing herself, she glanced up. Approaching the other way was a white- suited person pushing a cart, and she knew that if she was to do anything, she should do it at that moment, when the person behind her would have to move. This particular cart was carrying bottles of some sort of fluid: when she looked closer and saw that they were various animals in embalming fluid, she felt a little sick. It could be her, next.  
  
The cart pulled up beside her, and with a quick motion, she grabbed hold of one of its legs, knocking it over behind her. She heard the glasses shatter, heard the man curse, and took off like a hare down the hall.  
  
Don't let him shoot me, please don't let him shoot me. She begged inside her mind, running down the straight hallway and imagining a hail of bullets to come raining down on her any second.  
  
There was a massive thump behind her, but she didn't turn to look. He fell over, she told herself frantically, I bet he slipped in those...things and fell over.  
  
She threw a door open and ducked inside, slamming it behind her. She turned to look and nearly fainted. The room was one giant laboratory, with more tubes, only their liquids were clear.  
  
Several aliens were floating in these tubes, eerily silent, their various appendages curled around their bodies. Most of them appeared to be sleeping, but there were one or two whose eyes were open, and these were watching Eke intently.  
  
"This place!" she exclaimed, a shiver passing through her, "These monsters." The monsters were the people, she reflected, not the sentient things they chose to store here like dumb animals!  
  
She walked along the middle of the tubes, feeling strangely like she was disrupting something. Eyes of all shapes and colors fixed on her, and she felt the power of their stares. There was a fluffy thing that looked like a hybrid of a wolf and a dragonfly, with pale, transparent wings, bulging bug's eyes, and a large canine body. In that container was a gigantic eel- like beast, one that shimmered with all the hues of a rainbow as it swam back and forth uneasily. There was a horned horse, curled up in a fetal position, somehow breathing inside the fluid, and still a creature of incredible grace.  
  
Her back felt light, and wrong. Without her Pak she felt naked, and she was prodded forward to look for it.  
  
[Eke.]  
  
The voice seemed to come from everywhere, and nowhere, but somehow she knew that it was the wolf-like creature. She turned to look at it, floating so peacefully there, and it tilted its head down to gaze hard at her.  
  
[Invader Eke. What you seek is at the end of this room, on a table, in a security box. The key-code number is five-six-one-six-six-six.]  
  
Eke blinked. "Why are you helping me?" She asked quietly.  
  
[Hurry.]  
  
The Invader frowned. Obviously the psychic wolf-bug wanted her to go get her Pak first, which made sense. Remembering that it was all-too-likely that she was teetering on the edge of death made her hasten to the end of the room. She found the box just as the alien had told her, and tapped in the numbers quickly. The box's lid slipped off, and her Pak leapt from it like a live thing, scuttling to her back and reconnecting itself.  
  
She must have been separated from it for at least nine minutes, because the Pak had drained itself almost to exhaustion in sending out pulse signals to try to locate her. She swallowed, recognizing that she had been very lucky indeed. Any more pause or distraction and she would surely have been dead.  
  
[Eke!] Came the wolf-bug's call, [You must leave now. They are searching for you.]  
  
"Don't you want to be free?" she asked, moving back over to its containment unit, and searching around the base of it for some kind of button to open it.  
  
[I must remain. I cannot breathe this atmosphere, and my own suit has been long destroyed. This is all there is for me.] It explained in her mind, [They are coming closer. You have friends who are worried about you. You must go. None of these others are nursing any hope of being freed...you are the only one who can leave here.]  
  
She nodded, slightly reluctant, and then said, "I want to thank you for helping me."  
  
[You are welcome, Eke.] The wolf-beast filled her mind with images of warm peace, [Please go now.]  
  
"Wait. What's your name?" Eke asked suddenly, "Do you have family? I can tell them-"  
  
[I do. They are on the planet Aterka... my name is Huvoq Zen-Jen-Sa. Please, hurry.]  
  
Eke felt another wash of belated misery. She could never remember a name like that...could she?  
  
"Huvoq Zen-Jen-Sa. Huh-vock Zehn Jehn Sa." She said it slowly a few times, nodding to herself, and then turned her eyes back to the door. She raced to it, still running the name over in her mind, and turned the knob. She threw the door open and darted outside.  
  
Right into the midst of four humans, all holding guns aimed right at her. 


	8. Zim to the Rescue

"So where is she?" Zim asked, impatiently, "Hmm?"  
  
"She was right here! I swear it." Roc was beginning to become frenzied, pacing back and forth over the spot of grass where Eke had been lying when he left.  
  
Zim narrowed one eye in confusion. SIRs hardly ever made mistakes...normal ones, that was. Gir was a rare exception, it seemed. He did think that this 'Roc' was an outdated, smarmy and downright rude character, though, and that didn't serve to raise his opinion of the other very much.  
  
"I think perhaps you..." 'Made a mistake', was what he was going to say, but remembering the somewhat negative effect it had had on Eke, he quickly amended, "...Saw her somewhere else?"  
  
"No, no, NO, she was right here!" Roc insisted worriedly, "Right here."  
  
"Well. She's not here now." Zim muttered.  
  
Gir put in, "Maybe she got caught by the CIA?"  
  
"Don't be ridiculous, Gir." Zim snapped, "The CIA are a bedtime story told to scare little filth-humans."  
  
Roc was wringing his hands, looking anguished, "We've got to find her." he moaned, "She could be hurt, or scared, or... I don't know what."  
  
Zim frowned deeply. He did want to help, to avoid having himself exposed, oh, but how this complicated things. If only he'd stopped her from going...  
  
"Well." He said, abruptly, "You've got a direct link to her Pak, correct? So just send out a signal."  
  
"I can't do that, you idiot." Hissed Roc, berating his own stupidity, "Eke's Pak is at twenty-percent functioning capacity."  
  
"What?!" Zim was suddenly alarmed, "Did Scampi hurt her that badly?"  
  
"No." Roc scowled. This was taking too much time. "Eke has been Pak- disabled ever since she was a little girl. She doesn't know how it happened. That's part of the problem, you see. Her normal functioning levels are twenty-percent and below. She's crippled. Handicapped. Disabled. Call it what you want."  
  
"But how? ...I mean, how long? She could have gotten it fixed...?" Zim was puzzled, as well as horrified. A Pak malfunction was serious enough. Having one that didn't work eighty percent of the time was too terrible to contemplate.  
  
"Years and years. She never had enough monies to get it fixed. They all went to other things, like food, and lodgings, and her Spittle Pod, and me." Roc snapped bitterly, "She put maybe one or two aside every paycheck. It would have taken her several centuries of saving to get even a down- payment at that rate. She sent out little notices to those charities that work with the Pak-challenged and try to fix them, but she kept getting denied. We never figured out why, either."  
  
"Years and years...?" Zim wondered. Then, excitedly, "She has a Spittle Pod?"  
  
"This is no time to examine the type of thing she drives around in!" Roc burst out indignantly, "Haven't you heard a word I said?! She only has a ten minute life-clock before she's dead!"  
  
"Of course. Take me to her Spittle Pod." Zim said, calmly.  
  
Roc groaned in frustration, then jetted off in the direction of Eke's vehicle. Zim hopped on Gir's back and followed, a small grin on his face. The grin soon faded as he saw where the Pod was parked.  
  
"Are you two insane?!" He asked incredulously, "Parking an Irken spaceship on top of DIB'S house?!"  
  
"Dib? The boy-overlord-thing?" Roc asked, "The taller one didn't seem to mind."  
  
Zim was silent. "Don't...do anything like that again." he finally said, in a defeated voice.  
  
The three landed on the roof, and Roc tapped a control on his arm. The Spittle Pod's top hissed open, and Zim hopped into it, checking the controls. "Hmm." He muttered, as Gir and Roc situated themselves behind him.  
  
"How will this help?" Roc snapped.  
  
"Shh. My Voot Cruiser has one...ah-ha! There it is: a Bio-Genetic lock to the Irken pilot, linking them together."  
  
"Huh?" Roc peered over his shoulder.  
  
Zim explained patiently while he threw the little Pod into high gear and took off, tracking down Eke, "Imagine if you were an Irken pilot in a space- fight. You're shot down to an alien planet's surface and thrown from your ship. Considering different factors, it'd be near impossible to locate it by sitting up and saying 'oh. There it is.' So, all pilots are issued brain- implants that link them to their ships. If you have the ship, you have the location of the Irken, and if you're the Irken, you know where your ship is."  
  
"Genius." Roc muttered.  
  
"It is." Zim responded smugly, "And I was the one who helped design it. Heh, heh... I was so clever that they nicknamed me Rhesus."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"What?" Zim asked, annoyed.  
  
"Do you realize what that...?" Roc shook his head, not wanting to address that particular dive into lunacy, "Never mind. Let's just hurry and find Eke."  
  
The Invader glanced back to the controls, still irked by the little robot, and looked at the blinking radar screen. He punched the ship's rocket boosters and nodded approvingly as it kicked up its speed a little. "Not too bad a ship, really. She's close to here." His eyes moved to the window, frowning anew, "Hmm."  
  
"What is it?" Roc asked, following his gaze.  
  
"Gir. You were right." Zim said, in an awed voice.  
  
"I was?" Gir looked vaguely interested, then his attention was back at the seat, where he was pawing around and looking for gum.  
  
"The CIA have Eke." Zim pointed to the midnight black building that the Spittle Pod was hovering over, surrounded by guard towers and a length of barbed wire-topped fence.  
  
"Then we've got to get her back!" Roc growled, reaching out to open the hatch again. Zim grabbed his hand.  
  
"No! We can't burst in there like a Tyyh-han in a Fragile Glass Shop!" He admonished, "The CIA are designed to fight alien threats...they don't want the humans to think they are, but they are. I know they are. They're in league with the FBI."  
  
"That doesn't matter to me!" Roc hissed, "I need to get Eke back. At any cost."  
  
"Trust me, we will get her back. We will." Zim assured him, "I'm good at sneaky...human...tricking stuff."  
  
"Infiltration?" Roc asked, the corners of his mouth twitching downward.  
  
"Yes. Infiltration. I'm -very- good at it." Said the Invader, rubbing his hands together.  
  
"Alright...We'll do it your way." Roc agreed reluctantly.  
  
The Irken glanced at Gir, who was wearing his dog disguise. "Put your hood up, Gir." He instructed, "And you, Roc, you're going to need a disguise. Some native animal. Use the Spittle-Pod's hologram creator for it."  
  
Zim tapped the controls and withdrew a dark black coat, glasses and a hat from the holograph compartment of the ship. He shrugged them on, waiting patiently for Roc. The robot typed in a few things, concentration on his face, and then reached for what appeared in the compartment. Zim watched in amusement as Roc put on a panda outfit.  
  
"Mm-hmm. Just a blind, unregistered government official with his seeing-eye dog and his trained panda." Zim muttered, steering the ship around and landing it near the CIA's base. He snapped leashes on both Roc and Gir, starting off at a quick pace to the front of the building.  
  
The two unsmiling, armed bodyguards stationed on either side of the gate were silent as he approached.  
  
"Hello, gentlemen...? Nice...night, we're having." Zim said, cheerily.  
  
"Sir, do you have ID?" One of the unsmiling bodyguards asked, withdrawing a handgun and pointing it at Zim's face. The Irken looked down at it behind his glasses, blinking.  
  
"Why, yes. Yes, I do." Zim said, reaching into his back-pocket with one hand, holding the leashes with the other. "Here you go." He stuck the ID out, about a foot away from where the bodyguard was. The man reached out for it and read it over briefly, looking down at Zim then back at the card, several times.  
  
"Agent Rob Smithsinson?" Asked the bodyguard, hesitantly.  
  
"That's me." Zim assured him, clasping his hands together.  
  
"It says here that you're a fifty-five year old." The bodyguard pressed.  
  
"I have a height...problem." Zim supplied vaguely, "And I am blind. I need my seeing-eye panda and my trained dog--I mean, my seeing-eye dog and my ...hearing-ear trained panda. To help me hear."  
  
Gir stood on two legs and waved at one of the bodyguards, and Zim quickly amended, "They're both trained. The dog likes to wave at people."  
  
Gir began to dance.  
  
"And dance little jigs, heh, heh, he's a spirited puppy, huh? Down, boy." Zim chuckled, pulling at the leash. Gir dropped back down to four legs, wagging his tail.  
  
The bodyguard nodded. "Alright, Rob Smithsinson..."  
  
"Thank you, sirs!" Zim began to walk forward.  
  
"You're under arrest for impersonating a CIA Agent." The other bodyguard added.  
  
"Ehh? What is this?!" Zim demanded, "You dare?! I am blind! I am disabled! I'll have you court-marshaled, I'll--"  
  
"Nice try. If you were blind, you wouldn't know what your dog was doing." The first guard said, narrowing his eyes.  
  
"And if you were really an Agent, you'd have a lot more ID than a piece of notebook paper glued to a cut out square of a cereal box." Added the other guard.  
  
"And if you were fifty-five, you'd have white hair." The second guard finished.  
  
"I dyed it." Zim said defensively, and then in the same breath, "Gir! Attack!!"  
  
The green dog leapt from his position, ramming into one of the bodyguards, and latched onto his head. Roc charged up from Zim's other side, taking out the guard with a cross-punch, and dropped to the ground lightly as the guard fell like a ton of bricks.  
  
Gir's target stumbled backwards blindly and slammed his head on a lamppost. He fell down, unconscious before he hit the ground, and Gir hopped off, returning to Zim's side. "What now, Agent Rob?" He asked, saluting.  
  
"Forget the blind Secret Agent act. That isn't working." Zim muttered, dashing in the gate between the two felled guards. Roc and Gir scampered after, still playing at animals. Zim reached the main door and reached for the handle, twisting it down and throwing it open. He dashed inside, looking down one hall, then the other. For a moment, he just stood, breathing hard.  
  
"Which way?" He snapped at Roc and Gir.  
  
"This was your idea." Roc snarled, "You messed it all up."  
  
"Left." Gir announced, pointing. Zim and Roc stared in mute disbelief at a directory, pinned to the bulletin board, that read 'Aliens Stored in Area C36.'  
  
"You're a genius, Gir." Zim said, triumphantly, "To Area C-Thirty-Six!"  
  
The three dashed down the hallway, Zim throwing his glasses down and blinking hard in the bright hallway. The floors, dull blue tile, passed in a blur as the two robots ran alongside the determined Invader.  
  
Roc leapt up into the air, shedding his panda disguise, and jetted along the hall, his flight mode infinitely faster than his running ability. A minute later, Gir did the same, minus taking off the costume.  
  
The red eyed old man in a black suit and hat charged along the seemingly never-ending hall, a flying robot and dog hovering on either side. The normal staff of the building didn't dare to challenge him.  
  
The three armed CIA operatives, however, did.  
  
"Freeze, alien!" They stood, back to back, all weapons trained on the three intruders, and Zim skidded to a stop on the tiles, glaring. Roc and Gir pulled up on either side.  
  
"Put your hands above your head! No sudden moves from the robot or the flying dog!" The CIA Agent on the right called. It would be hilarious, if Zim didn't feel so utterly defeated. He frowned. He'd been able to beat a mall's security once before, so surely he could get past the CIA.  
  
"I control you! I will destroy you all with a painful nerve gas of doom!" Zim screeched, saying whatever popped into his head. He reached into his Pak and drew out a menacing-looking black object, with several red and blue buttons on it. He pointed it at the CIA Agents. "Don't make me!" He said, adding desperation to his voice. It wasn't hard.  
  
He began to advance on them, holding out the rectangular weapon. The Agents took one step back, then another, still keeping their guns trained on Zim. This was a very high-stakes bluff, but Zim didn't let himself falter.  
  
"It will explode your livers from within." He warned menacingly, "Get out of my way."  
  
They didn't move. Neither did he. After a few precious moments had passed, with a grunt of effort, Zim threw the object at the lead Agent. It bounced off the man's skull and clattered to the floor. The Agent was temporarily stunned.  
  
"Roc, Gir! Go!" Zim instructed, reaching back for his Pak again. Jets opened in the marvelous little device, and he took to the air, flying over the Agents as they stared fearfully at the black item.  
  
Roc and Gir sped by next to him, also passing over the Agents.  
  
The three fixed their eyes on the object, hardly daring to move. Finally, the leader reached down for it, picking it up in trembling fingers and examining it. "Hey!" He exclaimed angrily, "This is a Samsung TV remote!"  
  
But Zim and the two SIRs were well on their way down the hall by this time. Zim landed, ran again, and began to pant, losing his adrenaline-powered energy almost as quickly as it appeared.  
  
He gasped, kept moving, but there was an unpleasant ache in his squeedly- spooch, and he didn't know how long he could maintain the speed at which he was moving. His eyes moved to the ceiling. Couldn't use his Pak's legs in here, it was too cramped a space. He'd be smacking his head against the lights every five seconds, and that was hardly preferable to what he was doing at the moment.  
  
Roc stopped, waving his hands to the others, and pointed. "I heard gunshots, around the corner." He whispered in a hushed voice.  
  
"Ooh. Maybe they're filming a movie?" Gir suggested.  
  
"Gir...just be ready." Zim glared at the little SIR, "On three, we'll leap out. One... two..."  
  
An exhausted Irken female dashed around the corner and collided into Zim.  
  
"Zim!"  
  
"Eke?" Zim hit the floor hard, stayed there, looking up at her. "Are you okay?"  
  
"Zim, there are people with guns!" She looked at him, wide-eyed and frightened, already untangling herself from him, "Oh..." she sighed, fearful, and then her eyes fell on Roc. "Roc!!"  
  
The robot latched onto her, hugging her close, overjoyed to see her, and that she was okay. "Your Pak?"  
  
"It's on. I'm fine."  
  
"As fine as you could be." Zim corrected without thinking, and Eke turned a hurt look down to Roc.  
  
"You told him?" She whispered, feeling betrayed.  
  
His expression was unreadable, "I had to."  
  
Eke turned away from him, her eyes back on the other Irken. He was standing again, slightly unsure of himself, his face fixed into a grimace.  
  
"We need to get out of here." He said, when he noticed her staring, "In case you've forgotten, we're deep within the enemy stronghold."  
  
Eke shook her head wordlessly. She was struck suddenly by the thought of what was deep inside him; his arrogance and strut was simply that, but inside, he believed it all. He was arrogant because he thought he was the best. He swaggered because he thought he could deal with whoever dared to challenge him. It was a nice little bubble to be in, but when it popped...  
  
She broke her thoughts away from that. Now wasn't the time to think about his character, or what she could say to make it up to him. He'd risked his life to come and get her...and how could she make that up to him?  
  
Roc tensed, "There are more of these humans coming." He informed the group.  
  
"Four of them were chasing me!" Eke cried, "And there's an alien... his name was... it was..." Her eyes filled with tears and she fell to her knees, distraught for reasons none of the three could fathom.  
  
"Eke!" Zim snapped impatiently, "Eke, get ahold of yourself!! Just -think-, you idiot." He felt guilty almost before the words left his mouth, but she gazed up from the floor and seemed to calm, not hurt by the insult.  
  
"Huvoq... Zen-Jen-Sa." She murmured, in wonder, "Huvoq Zen-Jen-Sa!"  
  
"Eh?" Zim was puzzled.  
  
"I remember it." Eke whispered, something boundlessly grateful in her voice. Without another word she crumpled, exhausted, to the floor. Zim sighed inwardly. Female Irkens tended to faint a lot, but this was too much, and not exactly the best place, either.  
  
"Alright, Eke. Come on." He reached down and scooped up the girl, glad she didn't weigh all that much. There was no help for it, sadly. He would have to use the spider-legs.  
  
"Go on ahead, Gir. Clear the path that way. Roc, you guard the back." Zim ordered.  
  
"What's wrong with Eke?!" Roc demanded.  
  
"Nothing. She's under a lot of stress. She'll be fine." Zim said briefly, "But if we don't get out of here, she won't be."  
  
Roc took the hint, turning and converting his left arm into a blaster, waiting for the CIA Agents to rush around the corner. Zim took off again, the cyber-legs from his Pak shredding the coat and leaving it in tatters on the floor. He bent his head low, grimly muttering under his breath every time one of the fluorescent lights smacked him in the forehead.  
  
He looked down at Eke's face between the collisions, at her peaceful, slumbering face, and wondered if she was really worth it.  
  
Gir blasted off ahead, running into the three Agents they'd left behind, and bowling them over with sheer momentum alone.  
  
Zim scuttled along behind, ducking and getting smacked again, despite forcing his head down as low as he could. Roc ran along at his heels, his head turned to the back and his pulsar arm aimed at the still-empty hall. A few minutes passed, and the only noise was the scraping click of the metal legs. The hallway zoomed past, and Gir kept going, the way cleared for the most part. They reached the main door within seconds of Gir's knock-out of another Agent, and burst out of the main door running. None of them looked very happy, but they seemed victorious.  
  
Gir pulled up short, and Roc paused also. The door-guards were back up, and now they had no prejudices about shooting. Zim forced his cybernetic legs to charge forward, ignoring everything but the tantalizing open gate. He bunched them down beneath him as the gate slammed shut and leapt, putting everything he had into the jump. He sailed over the chain-link fence, and would have made it cleanly and completely were it not for the barbed wire. One of the four legs hooked and caught, jerking him back to hang over the fence, just over the sidewalk, and making him a prime target for the two guards.  
  
Roc sped forward, grabbing Zim by the back of his Invader uniform, and yanked. Gir grabbed Roc, showing unheard-of cleverness, and pulled as well. The wire bent, then the single spike that had dug into the leg's mechanism snapped off, and Zim landed on the other side on three legs. The fourth was broken slightly, but it didn't affect his speed all that much as he scuttled off into the darkness like a giant, wounded spider.  
  
Roc and Gir rocketed after him, leaving the CIA HQ in an uproar. 


	9. The CIA

Zim placed the fragile-looking Invader on the couch, sitting down with the air of an exhausted but pleased superhero. He looked scratched, beaten and bruised, but he was far from defeated as he gazed at the couch and the form of the female Irken.  
  
Roc opened the door and slowly stepped inside. "The Spittle Pod is parked out back." he reported, uneasy at taking orders from an Invader who was not his master. "Anything else..?"  
  
"No." Zim was looking at Eke, intently, "...This disability she has. It makes her absent-minded?" He didn't sound mean about it, just remotely interested, as if inquiring about the state of a puppy seen in a store- window.  
  
"Yes and no." Roc paused as he thought of the best way to explain it, "She just forgets many things, a lot of the time. Nothing like the odd-occasion of misplacing keys. She would literally have no recollection of where they were. It makes things hard for her... like waking up every morning and relearning how to tie up shoelaces and tell the time."  
  
"I can imagine." Zim muttered, still looking raptly at her face. He reached out for the locket around her neck, curiously, but stopped when Roc jumped forward and slapped his hand away.  
  
"She doesn't let anyone touch that." Roc growled, "And I don't see why you should be an exception."  
  
"Sorry." Zim replied, not sounding sorry in the least and rubbing his hand, sulky, "I was just wondering..."  
  
"Yes, well. Don't." Roc trotted off to the kitchen, still looking angry. Zim turned his gaze back to the other Irken, and he found his eyes drawn to her Pak. How hard... could he really imagine?  
  
Gir poked his head up from behind Zim, crouching there patiently. "So. Is she going to stay?" He asked.  
  
"For a little while." Zim allowed.  
  
"Why only a little while?" Gir sounded disappointed.  
  
Zim folded his hands, "Gir, she's caused more trouble in one day for me than you have in a month. Think about it. -She comes in here...punches me... I find out she landed her spaceship on Dib's house, of all peoples'... then she runs off and jeopardizes my mission by being kidnapped by the CIA."  
  
"But we saved her." Gir persisted, "...Do you like her?"  
  
Zim startled, "Of course not." He added, quickly, "She only came to offer help I don't need."  
  
"I know." Gir said, patiently, "But she seems...nice."  
  
"So did Tak." Zim muttered, darkly. Gir was quiet, not really finding anything to say to that. He nodded after a moment, and exited the room as well, leaving Zim alone with Eke.  
  
She was breathing slowly, easily, and her curled antennae waved back and forth, relaxed. Zim found himself musing on how defensively she'd taken his reaction to not needing his help, and decided it was elementary to realize that he didn't need any. After all, he hadn't perished yet, like so many other Invaders who were assigned planets with over four billion inhabitants, and he had successfully infiltrated their educational- facilities.  
  
Perhaps it was that accursed Dib. Perhaps the Almighty Tallest feared that his freakishly big-headed nemesis could stop him, and they'd have to find another qualified Irken to take the top-secret mission. Zim doubted such a replacement could be found.  
  
Ah, that seemed like the only conceivable reason that he could think of, anyway. Nobody sent two Invaders to the same planet. Zim couldn't think of a single exception to that rule, barring perhaps the time he'd spent with Skooge.  
  
Eke was sweet, he thought, but certainly not sweet enough to put up with all this. She was far too much trouble here. Their excursion out into the CIA's base might even cost them further, if anyone had gotten a good look at Zim, or her, for that matter. Either could be traced back to his headquarters, and then there would be trouble. Zim had left plenty of evidence, in the holographic clothing, but fortunately, their programs would run out after a little while, leaving the Agents with nothing. But then there were the incredible scores of people who had seen him, who had seen Eke...countless staff, guards...  
  
Maybe it could even give Dib the ammo he needed, someone else who knew for sure that Zim was not a meek genius enrolled in the nearby school, who simply happened to be strong and popular, too. If anyone with any real influence found out about him, he'd have to move quickly to silence them. Being able to insinuate oneself into an alien planet and remain undetected was a lot like jamming your thumb in a dike. If the water pressure exceeded what the dike could hold, the thumb wouldn't be enough, and the whole thing would collapse in his face. He pictured his hard-earned position of secrecy he'd already acquired as a glass fanning out with cracks.  
  
"For a day." He said, aloud, "You can stay for a day, and no more."  
  
He shifted around, reached for the remote control, and switched the TV on. As a rule, he disliked watching any sort of human entertainment: it was pointless, for one, and it made him feel a bit homesick; not that he'd ever admit it. Invaders weren't supposed to be homesick, they weren't supposed to stare out of the windows of their houses and yearn for another Irken to talk to. But he needed to hear another voice, and the television seemed the only option.  
  
He only dimly paid attention to the television report, and to the superficially "beautiful" human reporter talking excitedly on the screen, his thoughts and mind far distant, to another world where green skin was the norm.  
  
"...Breaking news, pertaining to the nearby government facility stationed in the small town of..."  
  
Zim's antennae twitched. It took his mind a few moments, but he suddenly focused all his attention on the screen, a cold hand of disbelief grabbing his heart and twisting it around a bit. Water pressure... discovery.  
  
"No!" He burst out, despairingly, "No, they wouldn't dare to go public...?"  
  
"...At three fifteen this morning, an alleged alien waged war on the base, leaving one official with head trauma and another hospitalized when one of the officials opened fire on the alien and missed. There are no serious injuries, but the claims have already been filed, and a warrant issued."  
  
"This is insane!" Zim hissed, "They'd never--! They have no proof!"  
  
"Security cameras caught a fleeting image of the alien, who, although he appears humanoid, seems to be green-tinted and shows a preference for drinking human blood!" The reporter waggled her fingers and tried to look spooky before the screen cut to a clip of Zim charging out of the place with Eke in his arms.  
  
"No." Zim repeated as if the denial could render it all invalid, the feeling of someone tugging on his heart anxiously fading, replaced with a numb sensation of failure, "Absolutely not."  
  
The screen returned to the reporter, who appeared to be on-location outside the CIA headquarters. "We have a few witnesses here." she announced, "It appears the break-in occurred only a little while ago, and the only thing that was taken was a deterred alien of apparently the same species. Sir, do you know anything about what happened here?"  
  
The person in question appeared to be an elderly janitor. "Yes, ma'am, he just came on in here and took the alien, and he had these spidery legs that he used to escape. He didn't hurt nuthin, though."  
  
Zim was staring with the expression of someone treated to the sight of a baby being repeatedly stabbed, finding no words to encompass the emotional distress he was feeling.  
  
"Thank you, sir. And here we have someone who claims to have known the alien since he arrived here!"  
  
"Yes, yes I did, and I finally have concrete evidence!" Came Dib's over- excited voice, from somewhere around the reporter's knees. The camera panned down, showing the smirking boy, "He's been living in this neighborhood for a very long time, you see. He came here to conquer Earth and leave it to the mercy of his barbaric, evil species! His name is Zim, you hear me, Z-I-M, and he goes to my school, and he's in my class! Tomorrow, I can show you, I can show the world! He has to show up. Unless he has a doctor's note." Dib looked smug.  
  
Zim began to tremble. It was a subtle vibration, mostly in his fists, and it was reminiscent of the water lapping out of a pool before the devastating earthquake struck.  
  
"Now that mankind is safe at las--"  
  
The remote control hit the TV screen and glass shards flew from the destroyed appliance, littering the floor. Smoke wafted up, and Zim stood up shakily, his legs not responding too well to the latest development.  
  
For a minute he simply stood. His mind was working like a rat in a cage, pacing back and forth and testing each bar for weakness. The security cameras. No weakness there, the damage was done. Dib. He'd been a thorn in the side of the Irken Invader for far too long now, and Zim had let it rest. His first mistake, it seemed. Coming to school tomorrow, when surely it was crawling with Agents and guns and dogs and evidence, photographic evidence, and people looking for him, would be signing his death warrant, thanks to his nemesis.  
  
The metaphorical rat flung itself against the cage in desperation, and Zim knew that there was no way out. There was simply no solution that could be found to this. Checkmate for the humans. Checkmate for Dib, and for his conspiracy-creating friends. Utter, abject defeat for Zim. Humiliation.  
  
"There has to be a way out of this." Came Eke's meek voice, from behind him.  
  
This snapped what was left of his control, and he whirled on Eke, abhorrence in his eyes and voice, "You think?!" He asked, choked with emotion, "You know what you DID, don't you?! The worst thing I've feared! You just destroyed months and months of undercover work, you endangered mine and Gir's existences with a single blow, you've given Dib the chance he needed to prove to the world that I'm here!! I hate you, you dysfunctional little freak of nature!"  
  
She stared in much the same way he had when he had initially watched the report, the Baby-Stabbing-Face. She said nothing.  
  
"I want you out of my house, removed from my mission, off this planet and as far away from this end of the galaxy as you can get, do you hear me?! Well?! I guess you're deaf as well as completely stupid!!"  
  
"M-...my...Pak..." Her voice was barely audible.  
  
"-Has nothing to do with anything! It's not your Pak, you horrible little cretin, it's you! I'm sure of it! You're the stupidest, most RETARDED," his voice crunched down on that word like an animal chewing limestone, "Little piece of trash I've ever had the displeasure to know... You are a waste, a blight, a plague upon whoever you come into contact with! You nauseate me with sickening NAUSEA! You make me feel physically ill at your mere sight! Are you hearing me now?"  
  
Her lower lip was trembling, but her eyes revealed no emotion as she stood up to match his fury. Zim noted with some twisted glee that his height was superior. He had at least an inch on her.  
  
"Yes, I'm hearing you." She said, so softly that he had to strain to hear her, "And I never once sent out a distress signal to you. I never hailed you at all. I didn't ask for you to save me."  
  
"You didn't because you couldn't." Zim rallied, "Because you probably couldn't remember the hailing frequencies, that's why!"  
  
Her eyes burned with a rage that was chilling to watch, but Zim matched and then exceeded it. His stare was furious.  
  
"How dare you mock my disability," she asked, keeping her low voice, "When you have one? The Tallest told me that you, too, had a problem. So what exactly is it?"  
  
"A problem?" Zim scoffed, "My only problem here is you! You foul, mission- destroying, pint-sized sack of offal!" He shoved her, and she stumbled back, still weak from her earlier Pak-loss.  
  
She recoiled, all her anger seeming to hit an iron wall of his and rebound back into her, reflected many times. "This wouldn't have happened if you'd been...more understanding about my feelings..." She whispered.  
  
"Correction. This wouldn't have happened if you'd never come." Zim's fury had peaked, and was now slowly returning to normal levels. He'd stopped shouting, at least, and was now just speaking, his words pumped by the syllable with venom.  
  
Her eyes flicked down to the floor as she thought up a response, and she took another step back.  
  
"What's wrong?" Zim inquired, cruelly, "Forgotten how to speak? I wish you'd forget how to breathe."  
  
She trained her eyes back on him, full of hurt that he could say such things, and could find no response. Roc, however, could. He stormed into the room, his normally-green tinted eyes now pulsing a dangerous dark purple, and he held up his left arm, still in pulse-blaster form.  
  
"How dare you?" He hissed, "How dare you attack a defenseless little girl? I should gun you down right here."  
  
Zim turned his eyes to Roc, his voice filled with malicious anger, "But you can't, can you? Because it was ingrained into every properly-functioning SIR that they would never injure an Irken. Even if...they were attacked themselves...even in self defense..." As he spoke, Zim started across the room to Roc, smoldering embers of his anger seeming to rekindle.  
  
"Stop. Stop it, both of you." Eke murmured, both hands pressed against her temples, "Please."  
  
Zim continued his relentless advance, and Roc now began to move backwards, in an attempt to keep the same distance between them.  
  
The Invader suddenly stopped as a wailing siren issued from outside. He froze like a rabbit in a car's headlights, horrifyingly fascinated with the object of his demise.  
  
The doorbell rang, and Roc found himself similarly frozen. His eyes met the Irken's, and he read despair there, a child discovered doing a Very Bad Thing. A thing that might spell his death.  
  
Eke was able to move. She snapped her fingers, and an illusion maintained by the computer flared into life around her, creating the image of a small girl with short ebon hair and light green eyes.  
  
Without fear, she approached the door and opened it slightly, as far as the chain would allow. Zim stood, rooted to the spot at the other end of the room, as yet unseen. His head turned back to look at the partly-open door and the smiling girl who answered it.  
  
"Can I help you?" Eke asked quietly.  
  
"I'm with the CIA... we're investigating a break-in..." Came the faint reply.  
  
Zim's blood ran cold. Eke could point the finger at him and turn him in. They could drag him kicking and screaming back to their base and do horrible, terrible things to him, and he wouldn't be able to exact revenge on her, either. Who would they believe, the alien or the sweet little girl?  
  
"I see." She said, her voice unreadable. Roc was gazing at the door as though expecting a demon from the underworld to come screaming from it.  
  
"Do you mind if I come in and have a look around?" The Agent's voice was a little louder now, as though Zim's fear was amplifying his senses, in some primal, last-ditch effort to escape. If he came in and discovered something...anything, he wouldn't have to lay eyes on Zim to have the proof he needed. The whole house was packed with incriminating evidence, devices here and there that were too advanced for humankind, star-charts, the Spittle Pod out back and his own Voot Cruiser in the attic. The lab down below, to anyone who really looked hard...  
  
"I'm very sorry," Eke was saying, still in her quiet voice, "But I'm afraid my parents aren't home, and they left me specific instructions."  
  
"Oh?" The Agent inquired, politely interested. There was no suspicion in his voice. Was this an unlucky fluke, then, or was he simply an expert at masking his feelings?  
  
"Mm-hmm. My brother..." She paused, wracking her brains hard, "My brother has jaundice, you see, and he's not feeling very well."  
  
"I wouldn't want to disturb you, ma'am. Thank you anyway. I may come back at a later date..."  
  
"Oh, yes, of course." Eke agreed, vehemently, "Of course."  
  
"I hope your brother recovers." The Agent muttered a goodbye, and the door was closed. Eke snapped her fingers and the illusion rippled, then faded.  
  
She let out a pent-up sigh of relief, then her eyes landed on Zim and she seemed to remember herself.  
  
"What's 'jaundice'?" Zim asked, puzzled.  
  
"It's a human condition that turns your skin yellow-ish. The closest thing I could think of to an Irken's." She retorted crisply, obviously still angry at him.  
  
"Not bad." He allowed.  
  
"For a retard, I assume you mean." She added curtly, "My memory isn't bad enough that I'd forget you hate me with a passion."  
  
"Eke..." Roc began.  
  
"No. I'm leaving, and I'm not coming back. It's bad enough that I've ruined everything for him..." She looked with a heated expression at Zim, "...I wouldn't dream of inconveniencing him any more."  
  
Eke reached up to her neck and took the locket off, throwing it at Zim disdainfully. "You can keep this. The retard can't even remember who gave it to her."  
  
Zim caught it out of reflex, then his anger flared up again, "Fine! Get out of my sight, you--"  
  
"Haven't you insulted me enough for one night?" She cut him off, her voice wavering and ruining her devil-may-care attitude. She turned on her heel and left. 


	10. Memory

Eke dashed down the streets, all unfamiliar, a headlong flight to escape everything that was as futile as trying to stop an avalanche by holding up a hand.  
  
Human dwellings, everywhere she looked. Accusing shadows, looking like people, looking like the Tallest, looking like demons, and it wasn't fair. She'd only come to help and now look at all the trouble she'd gotten into; look at the trouble she'd caused poor Zim.  
  
Her thoughts were spinning out of control, her flawed recall bringing back his insults with a crystal, ironic clarity. She kept running.  
  
Houses passed, blurs, street-signs with alien lettering, this planet's sun now beginning to peek over the distant landscape, and pain paced by her side, reaching out again and again to touch her.  
  
The sack of offal...the retard...  
  
Well, the retard kept running, that was all there was to it. Make it simple for the fool.  
  
Eke had never felt so helpless in her entire life, not since she was young, young and impulsive. So she kept running.  
  
Not since she was young? Was this memory coming back to her, or was it confabulation? It didn't matter. The eternal fog had cleared somewhat, she could peer within and see distant figures moving, she heard the sounds of battle, of screaming, of buildings toppling. She heard noises that frightened her, and she somehow knew that she had been in the middle of this boundless destruction, this seeming Armageddon.  
  
Or was it a flight of fancy; made up story-time for the now-disillusioned fool?  
  
Eke slowed. Her breath came in icy, stabbing pants that ripped at her lungs and made her acutely aware of her dry throat. Her eyes burned with tears that she refused to shed.  
  
Names, faces, people she knew, people she didn't know, people who could be real or simply dreams. All these flashed before her eyes, and she was treated to a choppy little slide-show as her mind strained itself, fueled by the names and the hate Zim had thrown at her. It flung itself into those mists around her memory with a suicidal vengeance and a total lack of fear. It was the child climbing the tree because the bully taunted, it was the teased taking up the dare because the enemy had questioned her bravery. Climb the tree and hope you don't fall down, Eke...  
  
I'll show you who's retarded, her brain was screaming, I'll remember, I'll remember! I know it all, inside, somewhere!  
  
Pain, and screaming, and the noise of distant thunder. Eke stood stock still on the sidewalk, her breathing hushed. The sounds weren't coming from outside, they were being remembered. The only problem was that she could not put a situation to the noises, could not put faces to the voices.  
  
She remembered the gut-wrenching feeling of spinning out of control... A dim blackness that followed. In her mind, she heard someone apologize, with a meek little voice, for hurting her. The floodgate didn't shut out her memory completely, but she could sense it was far from finished. There was a lot of buildup.  
  
Eke was awed by the ferocious nature of the flashback. If it was to be relied upon, then something happened, some gigantic catastrophe. Pak trauma...something had happened to destroy her little robotic symbiote that now beeped meekly from her back. The normal functions, the legs, the shield, the storage compartment, all worked: they'd had to, after all, that was standard. But the other parts, the personality, the thinking processes...  
  
Maybe it really is you. A cruel voice in her head suggested, maybe they did fix your Pak, and the only problem is you.  
  
She tried to ignore it, to block it out. All her brainpower now had to go to helping figure some way out of this mess she'd created for Zim.  
  
{Zim. And you know you know that name, don't you, Eke,} Another voice, this one speaking fast and desperate, almost incoherent. {Who is he, Eke, that you know him? You knew him before you came to Earth, yes you did, this is all connected somehow and come on, now, think, and prove to me that you can. You almost had it before, there was pain, we know that much, you just need to work at it... there was screaming and fire--}  
  
Was there fire? She wondered.  
  
{There was fire, I'd bet myself on that, and there was danger, and by the Tallest, oh, no, there was something more and it's just out of my reach, you know, but I'll get it if you give me a minute, yes, if you just give me time, a little bit more, Zim was involved, he was, just a little more time-- }  
  
"Zim!" She said aloud, wondrously. She willed the voice to keep going, and blather on it did, her own thoughts taking frantic refuge in bouncing around her mind before they were lost forever.  
  
{--Maybe you should write this down, there was light because it was daytime, I think, but that much is obvious, and I know Zim was there somehow, and he knows, and there was danger, lots of danger, and I know I've taken a long time to get this out, what, seven years or...five--}  
  
"Five." She whispered, transfixed, "Roc was wrong, it was only five years." Her eyes widened. Roc couldn't have forgotten, he could not have accidentally made a mistake. Why would he lie to her?  
  
{Five, yes, but I'm trying, you know, I try so hard to remember and it's all locked away in me and if I try to get in it hurts me, it hurts me to remember to recall to think to know what's going on, tell me what's going on Eke please tell me what's going on--}  
  
She held her hands to her head again, trying to focus the voice. It was screaming now, as loudly as it could in her mind, faster and faster, not hardly pausing. It sounded frightened and anxious. It had said 'It's all locked away in me'...  
  
Eke gasped. As insane as it sounded to her, a strangely-plausible idea was forming in her mind. Her Pak was pouring all of this out to her. Since it couldn't function with her as one, it seemed to have hopped onto another awareness, became a separate entity. And now, it seemed, it had found the perfect audience.  
  
{So I've stopped trying to get in but you have to help me, you have to work with me to get inside me and remember what it was that changed you, what made you a reject, what made you a freak, they don't want you to know they don't so they told me to--}  
  
"Who are they?" Eke asked, trying to order the flow of words and ideas.  
  
{They did this to us I know they did and they scared me and they tried to get me to be silent forever and I was for five years or was it seven no it was five years and I tried to stop them but I was already gone by that time you see I expected nothing would go wrong I suspected nothing bad but it was all gone and I was alone in the dark the quiet the world was silent and I couldn't get any of it back it was like the stars we'll see them but they'll never touch us Eke you know they won't touch us and there's something wrong with us we were normal and then we weren't and it's all their fault those two they hate us they'd do anything to silence me because of what we did we did for him and I can't remember what it was but I know I should deep down inside us I know I should know--}  
  
The Invader was completely silent. The Pak had gone from semi-normal conversation to occasional pausing to pausing infrequently, to a virtual torrent without any pauses, and she had to fight to make sense of its fluid speech, its chaotic, lilting voice. It sentences were one long string, one giant jumble of words mashed together and spat out quickly.  
  
{They're crooked and they're evil and it's not your fault Eke you just had a passion you just cared too much and they thought you were dangerous and they thought you were wrong but they couldn't get rid of you no they couldn't because you excelled in the academy and you were so clever but you were ugly and the girls hated you and the guys ignored you but you were so clever and they were jealous and even though you were short they knew you'd be great that's why they didn't kill you right off after it happened that's why they only blocked me out they blocked me out and made me quiet but I'm talking now I've been quiet for a long time but this made me speak out this is wrong Eke this is so wrong you have to--}  
  
"Please, slow down." Eke whispered, "I'm begging you, this is too much. Slow down."  
  
{I'll try to slow down but I don't think...} The voice seemed to consider, {I'm sorry I put you through all this, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but they told me I couldn't let you remember, and even though you used to be clever we had to stop we had to not think about it, the change, that day five or was it seven years ago and anyway now it hurts me to think and to feel and to try to recall...}  
  
"The change, tell me about the change." Eke urged softly, "You can tell me now. They won't know."  
  
{The change.} The voice sounded doubtful now, {The change happened that five or seven years ago, it was fire and pain and that was when you were hurt and I was hurt and we weren't allowed to remember. They told me it was dangerous to know, they said I didn't need to remember, they programmed a block, several blocks, I let them, it was a cage and I couldn't get out, but tonight, tonight after Zim yelled and I remembered something...But now...now I forget again...} A soft, pained sigh, {It hurts...}  
  
"No! Try! Try really hard." Eke bit her lip, nervous.  
  
{I'll try.} The Pak seemed exhausted, {I tried to call but we were separated and I was lost and scared and I couldn't bring it all back but some of it came while you were gone for nine minutes and seventeen seconds and you nearly died I was worried but the things that came back the people in charge they were Red and Purple--}  
  
"Red and Purple! What do they have to do with this?" Asked Eke, anxiously. Her Pak was silent for a long time, so long that she nearly gave it up, thinking it was dormant once more, but after another minute or two, it started carefully.  
  
{Red and Purple were Tallest, they were angry at me and angry at you and I don't know why anymore, it was too long ago. But there was anger and they said you'd better not remember or something and then there was more of that pain. I'm tired now so tired I need to sleep, can we rest and recharge, Eke?}  
  
"I'm afraid not. We're not welcome at Zim's. There's nowhere we can go to recharge you. That sort of technology just isn't available here."  
  
{You'll have to rest yourself and settle for that then because I don't think I can....} A very long pause, {...talk anymore: I think I've done my limit and I'm nearly spent but here listen to this. Zim, ask Zim he knows something I'm sure of it and I don't know why he's not sharing maybe they blocked him as well but you have to ask him tell him it was five years ago and tell him there was fire and tell him you were there.}  
  
"Where?" Eke pressed.  
  
{I don't know where.} The Pak sounded angry and frustrated, {Tell him there, that's all just say 'I was there' and don't let him off the hook make him tell you make him tell us because I want to know. I have a right to know, Eke, I'm the guardian of your mind but the Tallest locked me out and I know he knows somehow, Eke, please don't let me down.}  
  
"I...I won't let you down." Eke found herself saying. She waited a long time for more commentary from the voice's end, but it said nothing. She ran over what it had said, trying to make sense of it all. Memory blocks...? Cruel, but it made a frightening amount of sense.  
  
If something she had said or done had been treasonous to the Empire...Well, memory blocks were one way of dealing with it and turning the person back into a functioning member of society. But as far as Eke could remember--Ha, and that was funny--she'd always been a decent person, never prone to do anything that might have gotten her in trouble.  
  
And what about Roc? He lied to me, on purpose. She thought, darkly, I've got to uncover that. No way could they set memory blocks on a SIR, so he -had- to have been lying.  
  
{Roc is lying yes Roc is lying tell him to tell the truth Eke don't give up you're not a retard you're not don't believe them R and E forever remember he said forever and I don't know if he meant it but he's a hopeless romantic and he said forever}  
  
Eke jolted. She thought the Pak had said its piece, but it burst back forward like a dolphin out of the sea, disappearing as smoothly as it had come, the final, repeated word, 'forever' lingering in her mind. 


	11. Back With The Tallest

"Do you really think it was wise to send Eke to that Earth planet?" Red wondered, sipping at the soda clenched in his two fingered hand absently.  
  
Purple glanced up from a magazine, across the room, and scowled. "Of course. We got her out of our antennae, didn't we? The same trick worked twice, and Zim's gone, too. Hopefully they'll accidentally kill each other."  
  
"I guess you're right." Red allowed, for once backing down. Usually it was Purple who let himself be beaten. Red glanced at the monitor a little way away from them, constantly on, but usually just a snowy screen of static.  
  
"Mm. Pity about that Scampi thing." Purple said wistfully, turning a page.  
  
"Yes. Terrible. It would have been perfect if it had just...you know... taken off his head, with one chomp. That would have been so neat." Red murmured.  
  
"I read somewhere that Irkens can survive fifteen seconds with severed heads." Purple was apparently deep in thought with the magazine in front of him.  
  
"If the blood flow is stemmed, they can live for thirty." Red retorted, "There was a lot of experimentation done with it about a century ago."  
  
"Oh?" Purple frowned, still buried deeply in the article.  
  
"Different torture mechanisms. Traitors to the realm and such, expendable people. Like Zim." Red chugged the rest of his soda with one gulp, waited for a second, and burped.  
  
He looked proud of himself, but the look deteriorated into annoyance when he saw that Purple hadn't even heard it, lost in his own little world.  
  
"Purple. You have three heads." He said.  
  
"Uh-huh." Purple agreed, turning a page again.  
  
"See, you're not listening to me." Red growled. Purple looked up, sensing the anger unconsciously.  
  
"Of course I am!" He protested.  
  
Red looked irritated, "Are you going to have a proper conversation with me, or read that stupid tabloid?"  
  
With a very saddened sigh, Purple closed the magazine and slid it under the couch he was sitting on. He looked with exaggerated patience at Red. "What do you want to talk about?"  
  
"We were talking about torture devices."  
  
"What about them?" Purple clearly hadn't been listening since his initial offer of the fifteen second death-clock of a decapitated Irken.  
  
Red frowned and stood, "I was kind of thinking about Eke, actually."  
  
Purple said, unsure, "The Communications Technician who we sent to Earth, right?"  
  
The crimson Tallest moved over to the nearby window, gazing out raptly, and nodded. "Yes. You know how she got demoted to that rank, right?"  
  
Purple made a dismissive snort. "Doesn't everyone? I was there, you realize."  
  
"I suppose so." Red seemed to be the distracted one this time, "...And I'm not sure it was wise to send her where Zim is."  
  
"You don't think there could be a repeat performance, do you?" Purple wondered, "It couldn't happen. We took steps." He seemed to be trying to convince himself as much as Red.  
  
The other Tallest turned his ruby eyes to Purple, a worried expression twisting his mouth, "Mm. I do. There have been...problems... with the steps we took before."  
  
"There were?" Purple grimaced, "But..."  
  
"The Pak is the main problem. It's been tested and proven in labs that Paks and Irken minds work together." Red narrowed his eyes, "Since only one was affected, the other proves a constant danger. Eke's hippocampus was still intact, even after the crash. We didn't go anywhere near her mind, it's only her Pak that blocks it all."  
  
"But she couldn't do what she did before again. And even if she did, there'd be no damage to us." Purple muttered, "Earth's as far away from our Armada's normal positions as we could get it, remember?"  
  
"We didn't even know it was there when we sent Zim." Reminded Red, "So we don't know if its orbit brings it uncomfortably close to us or not."  
  
"Still..."  
  
"Zim and Eke." Red massaged his temples, "What were we thinking?"  
  
"We can't be blamed for that." Purple sniffed, then folded his arms and spoke in a petty voice, "And if the same thing happens, more power to it. They'll probably just end up killing each other."  
  
Red twitched. "And if they don't?"  
  
Purple shrugged, "I don't see why you're so worried, Red. Relax. They're far, far away, and we have to assume Eke is still the ignorant, Pak- disabled, completely _harmless_ Irken that she was when she left."  
  
"And her SIR?" Red demanded, "That thing can't be trusted."  
  
"It's kept the peace for five years." Purple replied reasonably, "I really wouldn't fret, Red."  
  
There was a pause, and then, "You're probably right." 


	12. OIDO

Zim was pacing the floor, still trying to think despairingly of how to salvage something of the disaster that Earth had become, while Roc fretted to himself whether or not to rush after Eke.  
  
The Invader still held the locket in one hand, alternately squeezing and relaxing his fist as he moved back and forth restlessly. After a few minutes he took a seat on the couch, glaring down at it.  
  
"Computer. Begin work on how to complete Operation Earth." He instructed the house-computer. It yawned obnoxiously, then beeped.  
  
"As you wish."  
  
He ran his fingers across the engraving. R and E. Curious.  
  
"Robert and Elaine. Rodrick and Elsie. Ramrod and Enigma." He paused, the thought of Eke's anguished departure returning to his mind, "...Eke."  
  
With one thumb, he popped the locket clasp open and gazed at the inside. It was a little technological wonder: as soon as it opened, a holographic image began, with much static interference, to display words across an interface. Zim squinted, read the words aloud.  
  
"I'd give it all, I'll take the fall and it doesn't matter if I break...I'll beg with pleas, I'll stand when my knees begin to tremble and shake...And if there's no safe place in this world of disgrace, a place for you I'll make."  
  
The words were somewhat familiar to him... like the name of an elusive animal breed, something you knew that you knew, but something else was there, interfering.  
  
Zim's face furrowed in concentration. Where had he heard that poem before?  
  
"Hmmm." He hummed to himself, fiddling with the locket. It was no big deal, but...it was annoying all the same, a fly buzzing around in the room, almost. Irritating more because of the fact that you can't get rid of it easily than the actual noise it was making.  
  
You, Zim. Came the thought, unbidden into his mind, You?  
  
"I don't write poetry. Not even poetry that terrible." Zim said, disdainfully, "It's not something an Invader would do."  
  
"Not even an Invader in love?" Gir asked. Zim jumped. The little robot was leaning against the couch's arm, eating a Fudge-bar quite messily. His voice was teasing.  
  
"In love?" Zim widened one eye and narrowed the other, compensating for a distinct lack of eyebrows, "Gir, I really don't think so."  
  
"Maybe you forgot." Gir suggested, biting down on the treat and slopping half of it on the floor, "And maybe Eke did, too."  
  
"Forgot? About being in..." He shuddered, "...Love? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."  
  
Gir was about to respond when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." He announced, tugging on his hood and assuming his dog disguise. He trotted over to the door and opened it.  
  
"It's Eke." He told Zim, turning, "Should I let her in?"  
  
"Yes." Zim grimaced. She was quick to turn on her word, it seemed, of leaving and not coming back.  
  
The small Invader slipped in behind Gir, and he closed the door in her wake. Her expression was thoughtful, fixed on Zim.  
  
"Five years ago." She said, rocking back on her heels slightly, her hands clasped behind her back.  
  
Zim twitched. "What are you playing at, Eke?"  
  
"Five years, a lot of pain, and uncontrollable fires. Destruction. What happened five years ago? You were there, I know that much, but what I know is severely limited, because of this." she tapped her forehead wistfully, "Well? You have nothing to lose now."  
  
"No, because you wrecked it all." Zim agreed, his voice laden with bitterness, "I don't see why you'd care about that... it was no big deal, besides, it was a mistake anyone could have made." He paused.  
  
"You're being very vague." Eke told him grimly, "I really do want to know. So why don't you just tell me?"  
  
"I don't know what to tell you." Zim muttered, "Except it was probably the worst, most embarrassing mistake of my life."  
  
"Oh?" she prodded, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"  
  
"There's nothing for me to tell." There was a decidedly hostile note in his voice, and a stubborn edge, to boot.  
  
"What did you do to me!?" Eke demanded, spitting the words fiercely, "What the hell was it, huh?!"  
  
Zim looked taken aback, "What did I do to YOU? Eke, I've never seen you before yesterday in my life. What I did on Irk five years ago has nothing to do with you."  
  
Instead of answering him, Eke turned her gaze to the silent observer in the corner, "Roc." She said, distinctly, "Why did you lie to me?"  
  
Roc didn't respond.  
  
"Roc, I'm giving you a direct order." Eke's voice was soft, pained, "Tell me why you've maintained a lie."  
  
The SIR unit spoke in a mechanical, automated voice, "I had to."  
  
The female Irken felt frustration. Nobody was exactly being forthcoming, and all she wanted were some concise answers.  
  
Zim had steepled his fingers and was looking over them, intently, into the distance. Roc's expression was blank, he had regressed to his old robot mode to deal with the emotions he wasn't programmed to handle.  
  
"Will someone just tell me what happened?! I don't know what to think, damnit!" Eke screamed, "Someone tell me what happened!"  
  
"I'm sorry." Zim said, with a small sigh, "If it's any consolation, I'm not lying to you...but I think it was spiteful of you to bring up O.I.D.O."  
  
"O.I.D.O.?" Eke latched onto the new information with the intent of a drowning man, "What?"  
  
His antennae flicked up as his eyes trailed slowly across the room to land on her, "You really don't know." It was a dispassionate question.  
  
"I really don't." she said, softly, "But if I hurt your--"  
  
"Yes." he waved a hand dismissively, "O.I.D.O... Operation Impending Doom One. Everyone knows that, barring special cases like yourself, I see."  
  
She blinked, "What was it?"  
  
"The operation that would seat the Irkens where they belonged-on the king's throne of the universe. All other races were to know the might of the Irken Invaders." Zim spoke mechanically, disinterestedly, "And it was, 'delayed', I should say, because of me."  
  
Eke felt some sort of response was in order, "I ...see." She murmured.  
  
"I borrowed a Battle Mech..." He shrugged, "One small mistake, you see. I'm very dedicated. I vowed that the Irken Invasion would be possible because of my efforts. My name would be sung in the songs, my exploits recorded in the history books, my genes preserved so my DNA could be cloned anew. Zim the Conqueror. Zim the Mighty. Zim the Great."  
  
She nodded, but he seemed to not notice the movement, his face distanced, his mind back a long time ago.  
  
"The mistake itself was a very little one." He continued, and there was slight emotion there now, some deep sadness, "Nothing massive. I just got... carried away. That's all." He laughed, and it was the forced laugh of a person reliving a great humiliation, "Ha, well, it turns out...We were still on Irk. Funny, huh?"  
  
Eke looked truly sad, "Is that your disorder?"  
  
"My what?" Zim seemed shaken out of his reverie.  
  
"Your...disorder. The Tallest said you had some sort of problem." Eke continued uncomfortably.  
  
Zim shook his head, puzzled, "Nothing wrong with me...overzealous, but then, most of us geniuses are. Anyway. There was a lot of destruction resulting from that one tiny mistake, and a blackout that lasted for a few years, I think." His eyes looked a little haunted, "There was a body count."  
  
The female Invader winced, "Zim, it wasn't...it was just..." she could find no words to console him.  
  
"A body count." He continued, "Of seven thousand twenty two Irken soldiers, male. Six thousand and seventy eight Irken soldiers, female. And a stunning ten thousand nine hundred seventy one Irken civilians, male, female and Smeets."  
  
She gasped, "All that? How...how long before you realized you'd made the mistake?"  
  
Zim spoke tonelessly, "I don't know. Four hours, maybe. A Front-line Battle Mech is nothing to laugh off. It can ravage a primitive planet and leave it bare and smoldering within an hour. I went over the death lists on my escorted trip to Foodcourtia...that's where they banished me."  
  
"Zim--"  
  
"So you see why it was a cheap shot, don't you, bringing that up. I envy you your ability to forget, because it's all in me, and every time someone brings it up and rubs that one tiny mistake in my face, I remember all those names."  
  
"But, Zim--"  
  
"But the worst part of all was what happened before I stopped completely... They sent out Spittle Runners and the smaller Pods, and all kinds of ships to stop me, everything but the Massive, and I started taking those down too, and I didn't realize...didn't recognize...her..."  
  
That stopped Eke's blood cold. "Zim...?"  
  
He seemed far away, in a world where ordinary words wouldn't reach, "I shot down my...my friend's Spittle Runner. I saw it crash and I saw it explode and....and... that was when I finally realized. That was when I got it into my head that we were still on Irk, when she..."  
  
"Would you listen to me?!" She snarled. He glanced up, dazed, and stared in silence.  
  
"It was still an accident, and you can't get all mournful and angsty over something that happened so long ago."  
  
"Five years may seem a long time to someone who can't remember her middle name!" Zim spat back at her.  
  
Eke felt words race to her mouth, didn't think before she spoke, "If you weren't such an arrogant little Invader, with delusions of grandeur, maybe you'd stop for a second and realize that I was trying to help you!"  
  
"Trying, but failing miserably! Not the first time, I'm sure, nor will it be the last." Zim stood, exerting his power of height over her again, knowing it was immature, "You come in here and taunt me about something that you have no understanding about, and you dare to make me think about it all over again!"  
  
"You're short!" Eke screeched.  
  
"You're shorter!" Zim retorted hotly, being drawn into the Smeet-like behavior easily.  
  
"You're just a stupid, big-headed failure!" Eke clenched her fists, "And I told you that I didn't know about O.I.D.O., and all I wanted to know was what you did to me, and my Pak told me that you said forever!"  
  
There was a long, deadly silence after those words were spoken.  
  
"What did you say?" Zim whispered.  
  
"I...I..." Eke faltered. The expression on his face was one of a whipped dog, "I said..."  
  
Zim backed off a step and sat back down on the couch, hard. "I...don't understand... how could you..."  
  
That was when the door was kicked in, and one of the two scowling CIA agents holding guns snapped, "Hands in the air! Freeze!"  
  
"I told you!" Came Dib's gleeful voice, from behind, "I told you he was an alien!! Guess what, Zim?! I've won, I've WON, and the Earth is saved at last!!" 


	13. Full Circle

Zim snapped up, shaking off the shock of Eke's revelation and of Dib's apparent victory smoothly. "Computer!" he barked, "Initiate defense program Seven five seven two one Beta-doom!"  
  
"Initiating." The computer exclaimed, and Eke watched, stuck to the floor, as the lawn gnomes from outside, (ones that she rightly had recognized as security) began to advance inside, towards the CIA.  
  
Dib whipped around, dodged and ducked under one of them, then darted through the clutching arms of another. "Don't let him get away!" he howled in frustration, "You people are trained--!!"  
  
One of the gnomes caught the first agent with a swinging punch and sent the man sprawling. A few minutes later, the other was also down. Dib made a whining noise in the back of his throat, born of a genius surrounded by incompetents, and hissed, "Well, Zim, I guess I'll just have to destroy you AND her by myself! If you want a job done right..."  
  
Dib reached down and grabbed one of the agent's weapons, and Zim half- turned to flee, knowing full well that the human would have little mercy.  
  
He tripped on Gir's spilled dessert and went down, catching himself on his hands, but ruining his escape. He froze as the cold muzzle of the gun pressed against his head, and heard Dib's harsh, raspy breathing next to him. Eke gasped almost inaudibly from behind them.  
  
"Any last words?" Dib asked, breathlessly, "And careful not to make them sound like an order... I can be a little...crazy...sometimes."  
  
"Dib..." Zim whispered, thinking madly, trying to find some way out. Inanely, he thought; if Gir had been like a normal SIR and cleaned up after himself...  
  
"Hurry up, Zim. I won't wait much longer." Dib hissed. There was nothing of the bumbling school student in him now; he was all survival. The cold, reptilian part of his brain had seeped up and taken control of the situation.  
  
'When there is a threat, kill it or run,' dictated the primal, evil instinct, 'better if you kill it, because if you do, it can't chase you.'  
  
"Roc!" Eke cried, and the robot moved, almost before her command, darting the small distance toward the human and shoving him. The gun went off, missing both of them, by some miracle, and sending Dib sprawling.  
  
The reptile howled for him to get up, and as he did, there was something of that lizard shining in his eyes.  
  
Eke was still frozen to the spot, but Zim no longer had that problem. He stood up, turned and ran again for the lab, exiting the room and heading down a previously-unused tunnel from the kitchen refrigerator to get to the section that he wanted. Dib was up and after him a moment later, determination driving him.  
  
The female Invader knew there was no plan to what Zim was doing, that he was only trying to flee, following the instruction of his own reptilian instinct.  
  
She gave chase, darting in through the open fridge and hearing the sound of gunfire, two shots, a moment later. Zim was sprinting full out across the open floor, with virtually no cover. The only thing that had saved him so far was Dib's aim.  
  
Eke's eyes trailed upward, to a familiar black containment tank, and she began to wonder. Moving on mostly fear and adrenaline, she headed for it. Dib noticed her about a second later, turning and aiming at her, instead, but by then she was too close. She reached out and slammed her fist into the tank as hard as she could.  
  
It shattered like brittle ice, and Scampi bellowed like a fiend released from the underworld, surging out of the black water and glancing around for movement.  
  
Zim stopped dead in his tracks, already well-acquainted with Scampi's brutal tactics and poor eyesight, and so did Eke.  
  
Dib stood for one instant; the expression on his face was priceless. "The South Carolina Lizard-Man?" He wondered, his extensive knowledge of the supernatural coming to his aid.  
  
Scampi roared; if it was possible, he was twice as agitated as before. Dib then did perhaps the stupidest thing in his life.  
  
He turned to flee.  
  
Scampi caught the movement and rushed forward, his own very reptilian instinct screaming FOOD-FOOD-FOOD! And Eke could only watch as Dib let out a helpless scream, the giant beast bearing down and slashing at his back to stop him and crush him.  
  
She watched, fearfully, with two minds focused on it, the Pak and her own.  
  
[He tried to kill Zim.] Argued the ruthless part of her mind: [let him die. Let him!]  
  
{He's protecting his planet. Or trying to. He thinks we're evil.} The sweet, innocent voice of her mind spoke up, trying to sway her.  
  
[He deserves this!]  
  
{Don't let it happen! Is this who you are!? Is this Eke, the girl who couldn't bear to see any violence, who doesn't like to see a cricket stepped on?}  
  
[Let him die...]  
  
{That isn't what we are. We are not evil.}  
  
All these thoughts raced through her mind in about four seconds, and Scampi had Dib pinned to the floor, beginning to dig claws into the flailing boy.  
  
"Human!" she called, forcefully, her voice carrying. Dib was screeching and trying to bring the gun to bear, one shot, but his arm was trapped under one clawed foot and it was wild and useless.  
  
"Human, listen to me! STOP MOVING!!" Eke screamed as loud as she could.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Zim sounded incredulous.  
  
"I'm saving his life." Eke whispered, hardly able to hear herself. She knew Zim couldn't hear, and she glanced at the polished floor guiltily. A small girl with a face she no longer knew gazed back.  
  
Eke lunged for Scampi and kicked him in the back of the foot. He turned from Dib and there was no hesitation on his part: he leapt from Dib and headed for her, lured by the motion and annoyed that a tiny creature would try to bring him pain.  
  
She took one step back as he relinquished Dib, didn't even have time to think about fleeing, and it never occurred to her martyring mind to freeze, like before.  
  
Eke didn't cry out as the claws buried themselves in her chest, digging around with icy persistence, moving to sever her arteries and splice her heart in two. They ripped out through her and slammed into her Pak, shattering it into metal and gears.  
  
As she sank to the floor, she could only concentrate on Zim's stricken face, and then she heard another gunshot, and saw Scampi collapse, only dead this time, Dib had finally managed to aim straight.  
  
The floor was so cold. She shifted a little and felt a tug, and now the pain happened, now it howled in her mind, sub-zero fire ripping up her insides, tearing her apart.  
  
"Zim!" She called, her voice shaking, "Zim..."  
  
[Don't call for Zim, he doesn't know you. And you don't know him, and even if there was something between you two, it's gone now. You're dead.]  
  
Her fading vision picked up his worried face, his sweet Irken face with those glittering red eyes, like red starlight. Insanely, her mind thought: bleeding starlight...is this death?  
  
"Zim." She said, pawing desperately at him, her front soaked through with ugly gashes, "Zim, it hurts..."  
  
Zim seemed on the verge of a revelation, his eyes glittering as he kneeled by her, speaking in a cute little trembling voice that all guys use when they try to be macho, when they try not to give in to emotions, and he said in wonder, "It was you."  
  
Eke was silent. She didn't know what he was talking about, and it didn't matter. The pain was everything now, her world was graying out around the edges, and yes, it did hurt.  
  
"My friend. My...my girlfriend, I... Eke. What did they do to me, what did they do to you to make us forget?"  
  
"A beagle." Eke said, randomly, trying to latch onto something, anything, "You try to think of 'cocker spaniel,' but all you can think of is beagle, something...blocks... the half-truth, the whole lies..."  
  
She felt as though she was succumbing to a deep sleep, her front was wet and she was getting him wet as he leaned down to hug her, and she decided to point it out. "Zim, I'm getting you wet."  
  
He shuddered, holding on to her for dear life, "Don't leave! I thought you were dead for five years, Eke! It -was- you after all..."  
  
Sweet memory was coming back to her, beautiful memories, her Pak no longer alive to stop them coming, at the cost of her own life. She could finally remember everything, and it had never felt so amazing to her to have it all come back. Perfect recall.  
  
Her Pod arcing towards the Battle Mech, it turning, and Zim realizing at the last second... then the sick spinning and her Pod slamming into the ground in a burst of flames.  
  
"You must never bring this up again." Red's grave voice came to her, and she remembered lying in a hospital bed, her head hurting, her Pak screeching because it was broken and it was trying to warn her.  
  
Then, stupid memories from before, the ones you treasure the most. Fooling around with her friends, with Roc, with Zim on their small free time in between lessons. His nickname as 'Rhesus', which he was led to believe was a synonym for 'genius'...just a little Earth monkey. When he made the locket for her... the note-passing in school, no signatures if you pass them back and forth. His little fake brags, getting bigger and bigger, and bigger still. 'I've conquered this planet for you, my love. I've conquered this galaxy for you, I've conquered this universe, this multiverse, this omniverse... all for you. Tallest Miyuki will hail me as the greatest Invader ever.'  
  
"Zim," she spoke, her voice coming faintly. She knew she was dying, but somehow it was worth it to remember him like that... some happiness they had together.  
  
And she stared at him, because he was crying. What a silly thing for an Invader to do, she thought. And to write that poetry, and to make her a locket, and to care for her. What silly things. Especially for a macho- braggart like Zim. How silly.  
  
She was crying too, she suddenly realized, hot tears trailing down the sides of her face, she wasn't afraid of dying but she was afraid of leaving him all alone with this mess she had created.  
  
"Don't leave me!" he was sniffling, trying to rein himself in and failing miserably.  
  
"Five years...not so long...for one who can't...remember...her middle name..." She was smiling weakly, her eyes apologizing for her lack. "By the Tallest. ....hurts..."  
  
"Eke, don't go. I forbid it." Zim was saying whatever popped into his head now, turning, "I can--I have technology here--something to stop the bleeding, get you into stasis until we--"  
  
There was a final shot, and Eke slumped back, the bullet burning in her wound, cleanly to her heart. Her eyes faded, dying out like a candle in very heavy winds. Her chest rose once more, and then exhaled, and she simply did not take in another breath.  
  
She looked very small, crumpled and bloody on the floor. Very small indeed.  
  
Zim didn't move for what seemed like a long, long time, but was probably only a minute or two. When he did, when his eyes, burning with a complex fury, landed on the human child who had declared himself a god; to take her life from her, Dib inhaled sharply. Never had he seen Zim look quite like this. Never had he pushed Zim so far. The Irken Invader seemed, at last, ready to push back.  
  
Zim stood, feeling the pain in his heart and mind, both crying out for the lost memories of this noble girl he'd come to care about in some distant way, like a child loves a pet he knows he can't keep; he knows when his parents find out it'll be time to let it go.  
  
He walked over to Dib, who raised the gun again, eyes narrowed to deadly slits. Both met the other's eyes, and much more than rivalry smoldered there. In Zim's eyes was the pain and anger of that which was stolen from him, something that could never be regained. In Dib's was the determination that a leader has when placing himself in the path of a lion to protect his clan from attack.  
  
He had seen Eke as a threat, when she was no more threat than a butterfly. He had seen Zim a threat, which was true enough.  
  
But it was Eke he had killed.  
  
Zim reached the human, his hand shot out and grabbed the wrist with the cruel, murdering weapon, and twisted it back. Dib yelped as the gun was forced back to point at his own face, and Zim's expression was blank, the stony glare of someone on the edge of insanity. Zim's finger snaked down over Dib's, waiting calmly, the hammer cocked back.  
  
Somewhere in the back of his mind, a younger, more naïve Zim promised, "Forever." An older, wiser, pain-wracked Zim screamed for blood, for revenge. In his twisted way, Zim had come full circle, he had seen the only girl he'd truly cared about die twice, once by his hand and once by his nemesis's hand.  
  
There was only one thing left to do, he decided, and it was all too clear what it was.  
  
"Goodbye, Dib." He said, and pulled the trigger. 


	14. From The Brink Of Death

An empty click followed his action. Dib still stared, wide-eyed and pale, as Zim frowned, puzzled. He clenched his fingers again, and another empty click was all his action yielded.  
  
Zim sighed, the bitter sound of someone who has been cheated out of many things in his life, and was discovering yet another. He wrenched the useless weapon out of Dib's hands and threw it disgustedly into the corner of the lab, turning back to the motionless body of the female Invader.  
  
Zim reached down and began to gather up the scattered parts of the Pak. His mouth was moving, but the words he spoke were soft, too soft for even him to hear them. In sotto voice, he began to promise like a madman, hope filling him with desperate, wild measures.  
  
"I can rebuild it as good as new. We can be together again, we can see this thing grow, we can...we...can..."  
  
His hand clenched around a gear as he shuddered, the gloved fingers shaking, anguish wracking his thin form.  
  
Dib just watched, beginning to come back to himself, and he realized how badly this move had damaged the Invader. Much more than just a fellow Irken was lying on the floor.  
  
"Go...just...go..." Zim hissed, his eyes closed, but dry, as he hunched his shoulders, his body protectively in front of Eke's. He was soundlessly weeping, no tears, no noise, just the raw pain. After a few minutes, with no motion from Dib, Zim turned.  
  
"You've won, you little rat." He spoke in a bitter, dark voice, moodily, "You've taken everything. You've ensured the failure of my mission. You," His voice came down hard on the next word, "...murdered...", and his eyes were accusing, "my one-time girlfriend. You've wrecked it all. I've never hated anything as much as I hate you right now, and I want you to die a slow, torturous death, but I will settle for you leaving. Right now."  
  
Dib opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, both hands limp at his sides. If he had won, it didn't feel all that much like a victory. Zim was still holding the twisted, ruined pieces of the Pak, the device which had locked in Eke's personality, her thoughts, and her memory.  
  
Dib swallowed, "I will come back, Zim. I will. And I'll finish you off, too." He said, but his heart wasn't in it.  
  
Zim said nothing. He just sat.  
  
"I'll see them rip you open. I'll see them drag your corpse onto Mysterious Mysteries-" Dib continued.  
  
Zim. Just. Sat.  
  
"And I'll continue to protect my planet." Dib finished, inching towards the door. Zim's motionless silence was beginning to unnerve him.  
  
The Irken Invader looked at the pieces in his hands and around him, scattered and mangled. "Computer." He said, quietly, though he knew it could hear him no matter what decibel he spoke at, "Have the guard-gnomes clear away the humans upstairs. Take them somewhere remote."  
  
"Affirmative." The computer responded neutrally.  
  
"And, Computer..."  
  
"Yes, Zim." The computer said, a hint of a question in its voice.  
  
"Contact the Tallest." Zim whispered. The final admittance of failure...to call the Tallest and tell them his cover had been blown, that he was unable to conquer the planet as originally intended...  
  
The computer hummed for a second, sending out the signal to The Massive, and after a few more seconds' pause, the Tallest appeared on-screen, both looking impatient.  
  
Red seemed about to speak, but the sight that met his eyes was more than sufficient to silence him.  
  
"I told you so." Purple said to Red, though there was little victory in his voice.  
  
"My Tallest." Zim began, trying to form words that made sense. It was suddenly as though his mind found the words foreign, that he couldn't even begin to piece them together. "I...am calling to report that... Invader Eke has been terminated in...in the line of duty."  
  
Red and Purple both nodded, neither able to come up with a response. Zim continued with difficulty.  
  
"My...cover on this planet-"  
  
"Zim, there is a message of importance on the local news-channel." The computer cut in, severing the connection.  
  
Zim looked up, eyes blank in incomprehension, and frowned, "Huh?"  
  
Silently he watched the television broadcast, still kneeling by the Irken, feeling as though something had come along and very casually ripped his heart into shreds. His eyes widened as he saw the broadcast refuting the earlier one as a hoax, as a cheap media trick to get attention. Even the tape...  
  
A wild hope rose in him, making him temporarily forget the pain, "Computer, reestablish contact with the Tallest."  
  
The screen flickered and changed back to the Tallest, who were murmuring to each other, and who quickly stopped to look at Zim expectantly.  
  
"I will continue to do my duty in conquering Earth. There was a very minor difficulty which was easily dealt with." Zim said, a little bit more upbeat than before, "I will not fail you, my leaders."  
  
"I'm...sure you won't, Zim." Red said, uncomfortably, "Massive out."  
  
Zim became aware again of his gloved hands clenching the pieces of the Pak, as the screen switched off, and his eyes closed, sealing out the world around him. Silence reigned for a few moments. And slowly, something entered his consciousness. Something that he at first dismissed as wishful thinking, his mind trying to torment him by giving him false hope. Breathing noises. How? The bullet... the reptile... both attacks... nothing could live through that, could it? But breathing noises... after they had stopped less than a minute earlier...?  
  
Zim's head turned and his eyes opened to regard Eke, sprawled on the floor next to him, and he dropped the parts from his hand, withdrawing the glove from one, and moved it to her throat, feeling for a pulse.  
  
Be alive. He thought forcefully. Be alive. My mission is secure, now all I need is you... be alive... please...  
  
Nothing happened for what seemed like a long time as Zim concentrated, though it was really probably only ten seconds. A weak... very weak, almost unable to be felt... fluttering of a pulse was coursing through Eke's shattered, ripped veins, and Zim inhaled sharply. It seemed like a lie. It seemed too good to be true.  
  
But how was it possible? Her Pak lay in silent ruins beside her and all over the laboratory... and even if she was alive now, the ten minute lifeclock would ensure she perished in short order, unless... unless the Pak and her were separate beings...?  
  
"Computer!" Zim spat, frenzy in his voice, "Get Eke into a stasis chamber, now!"  
  
Mechanical hands from the ceiling reached down and picked up the pale Invader, and Zim didn't bother to see them carry out their automated task, busy picking up the pieces of the Pak. Could he rebuild them, after all? If given enough time, perhaps... if... that one word. He breathed in and out rapidly, struck anew with wild hope. He was a genius! He was Zim! He remembered his old nickname, and paused.  
  
"Computer, what's a Rhesus?" He asked, softly.  
  
"A Rhesus... shortened form of Rhesus monkey, used for biological experimentation." There was a short pause, "From the Earth Greek for Rhesos, king of Thrace."  
  
"Oh. Well, that's okay, then." Zim said, suddenly feeling very, very cheerful, "Status on Eke?"  
  
"Eke is functioning at one percent capacity, but her condition is stabilized." The computer reported.  
  
"All right." Zim felt worn out, but relieved, "Replicate a new heart and set of lungs, then perform a transplant." The computer beeped agreement, and Zim placed all of the pieces in a drawer. Everything was going to be okay. He couldn't believe it, after all the girl had suffered, she was still alive. Still functioning, though barely... even after he'd taken her for dead.  
  
He hesitated. Had she ...feigned death? In front of the Dib? It seemed unlikely, but it was the best guess he could come up with, in light of the circumstances. He wanted desperately for Eke to be all right again, and decided he'd do anything in his power to do so. Closing the drawer, he headed upstairs again, almost surprised to see that the Computer had followed his orders to the letter.  
  
Roc and Gir were waiting there, and both looked up at his entrance.  
  
"Where's Eke?" Roc asked at once.  
  
"In stasis." Zim said, quietly, "Roc, is Eke's Pak ...another being?"  
  
The robot twitched, then answered, "Yes."  
  
"I thought so." There was no victory in the Invader's voice, "It can be repaired?"  
  
"Yes." The second yes was a bit delayed, but just as truthful as the first.  
  
"And she can... to an extent... survive without it?" Zim asked, "Answer quickly."  
  
"Yes. To an extent." The SIR unit seemed uncomfortable at all the questions.  
  
Zim nodded, too tired to say more, and slowly dropped onto the couch. Something sharp dug into his side, and he withdrew the locket from a hidden pouch in his costume, gazing down at it quietly and musingly.  
  
His eyes closed, almost against his own will, and he fell into a kind of restful state, unmindful of either SIR unit, but mentally and physically exhausted.  
  
Down below, the computer hummed at its task busily. 


End file.
